Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel; Eastern question (Balkan)
Servia is not a country of great landowners. Apart from the property
held by the State, the land is almost wholly divided among peasant
proprietors. The law grants to every Servian peasant 2.8 hectares of
land, which cannot be sold to pay private debts. It is also forbidden
for cultivators to give bills of exchange. These two measures are of
great importance in preserving the land to the Servian peasant. The
country is a very rich agricultural one—perhaps one of the richest in
Europe. Yet one fact struck me as curious, namely, that in Belgrade one
cannot obtain any good milk, and all butter worth eating comes from
Budapest. There is a very great opening in Servia for dairy-farmers, a
branch of industry which, it seems, does not exist. The vines have, in
recent years, been all destroyed by the phylloxera, but they are being
rapidly replaced by the American variety. The country around the
arrondissements of Smederevo, Golubac, Ram, and Krayina are particularly
noted for good grapes and excellent wine.
[Illustration: In “The Kalemegdan”: Belgrade.]
[Illustration: The Market Place: Belgrade.]
Tobacco is a monopoly of the State. It is purchased upon a tariff fixed
by special commission, and is of well-known quality and peculiarly
adapted for the manufacture of cigarettes. The departments where it is
principally cultivated are Vranya, Krayina, Nisch, d’Uzice, and
Kragooyevac, while in other parts of Servia the Turkish varieties are
grown with great success, and for aroma will compare well with the
tobacco of Albania or Kavala. Not only is sufficient tobacco grown in
Servia to supply the wants of the country, but the quantities exported
are increasing year by year. A favoured few Englishmen, and especially
diplomats in various parts of Europe—who know the excellence of the
special quality of Servian cigarettes—have them direct from Belgrade.
Cigarettes bought for export cost one-half the price they do for
consumption in Servia.
Marmalade and _slivovitza_—an _eau-de-vie_ made of prunes—are also two
articles manufactured in Servia and largely exported, about three
million francs’ worth of the former, and two hundred thousand francs’
worth of the latter being sent out of the country annually.
There are immense forests in various parts of the country with a great
wealth of timber unexploited, as a glance at any good map of Servia will
show, while the sportsman will find there plenty of game of every kind,
from bear, lynx, wolf, and such-like animals, down to the quail, pigeon,
partridge, pheasant, and woodcock. The whole country teems with game,
and the only prohibitions are upon the stag, deer, chamois, and hen
pheasants. There are many sporting clubs, the chief one being in
Belgrade, where a paper is also published called _Le Chasseur_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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