Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1320

 1268 SERB, CROAT, AND SLOVENE STATE

Production and Industry.

Serbia is an agricultural country, where almost every peasant cultivates his own freehold. The holdings vary in size from 10 to 30 acres mostly. Of the total area (11,930,740 acres), 21 per cent, is arable land ; 4 per cent, is devoted to fruit and vine production and to gardens ; 6 - 3 per cent, is forest land, 11 per cent, meadow, and the remainder is State property (mostly forest) Fruit products formed' 13 per cent, of the total exports before the war. The country produces wheat, barley, oats, maize, rye and beetroots. Plum marmalade and also fresh plums are exported in large quantities, spirits are distilled from plums, and various fruits are grown. Tobacco production of Greater Serbia in 1919, 15,000 tons. Silk culture employs a large number of persons. The total production of wheat in Yugo-Slavia in 1919 was 24,694,726 cwts.; of barley, 4,251,692 cwts.; and of oats, 6,164,247 cwcs. ; maize, 30,575,315 cwts. ; and potatoes, 15,136,749 cwts. In 1920 the output of sugar was 35,000 metric tons.

There were in Yugo-Slavia 1,458,326 horses, mules, and asses ; 5,496,531 head of cattle : 9,771,985 sheep ; 4,849,457 pigs; and 2,447,949 goats.

Almost half the total area of Yugo-Slavia is forest. The State forests of Serbia had an area, 1910, of 1,375,000 acres; parish forests, 1,625,000 ; church and monastery, 42,500 ; private, 750,000. The forests consist largely of beech, oak, and fir, but are less profitable than, with proper management, they might be.

Yugo-Slavia has considerable mineral resources, including corI and lignite, iron, copper ore, gold, and cement. Copper and coal are the leading mineral products in Serbia. The best coal is to be found near Vrshka Tchuka and in Yarandona, near Rashka, and Kniajevatz. The State mine of Senj furnishes the greatest production (nearly 200,000 tons per annum). It may be expected that the coal mines in Serbia that have been already opened, after the reparation of the damage sustained during the war, will yield about 600,000 tons of coal per annum, of the value of 9,000,000 francs. Gold, lead, silver, antimony, iron ore, and pyrites are also mined. A capital of about 70,000,000 francs has been invested in Serbian mines up till now, with about 5,000 miners employed.

In Hjsnia, coal and iron are mostly exploited. During recent years an average of 860,000 tons of coal were extracted from 11 mines. The most important iron undertaking is in Varash ; average of 165,000 tons of ore. Among the other mines the most important are manganese and salt.

In Croatia and Slavouia only the coal mines are of special important*.

CjaI, lead, an 1 ziuc are mined in Sloveuia. Its brown coal yields 2,000,000 tons per annum, valued at 25,000,000 francs (pre-war prices). The lead mines produced in recent years about 17,000 tons of pure lead, vttlued at 9,000,000 francs (pre war prices).

The total production of coal in Yugo-Slavia was 2,491,258 metric tons ; in 1913 it was 3,587,432 tons.

Of the industries, flour milling is one of the most important ; there are 50 large flour mills in the country, especially in Bae&ka ; brewing) and distilling are extensively carried on, as are also weaving, tanning, boot- niaking, pottery, and iron-working. Carpet weaving is one of the oldest industries in Serbia. The product is manufactured principally at Pirot, in south-eastern Serbia, and the carpets are named after that place. The chief characteristics of these carpets are that they are made of pure wool, dyed with natural colours by local dyers, who pride themselves that the pro- cess of dyeing and colour mixing is a secret transmitted by father to son, and