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Rouraapia ana Bulgaria, on the south by Greece ^nd. Albania, and. on the 
west by the Adriatic and Italy. Its position is advantageous since some 
of the most important land and water routes connecting western Europe 
"ith the Far East pass' through' the country. The large prune export mar- 
kets of central and northwestern Europe lie at the very doors of the 
country and are readily accessible by w a ter and increasingly by rail routes- 
Topo^ra-hy r cl imate and p opulati on 
Yugoslavia is mainly mountainous ana hilly but a great plain, the 
Pannonian, formed by the Save and Danube rivers, lies in the northeastern 
part of the country. Drainage in general is a"ay from the Adriatic and 
flo-^s inland towards the DanuDe. The most important prune areas in the 
Kingdom ?re found in this part of the country. The .country is about 
97,000 sd-usre miles in area, or slightly larger .than the combined areas 
of Hew York and Pennsylvania. The climate in Yugoslavia is characterized 
by the absence of spring and autumn, winters and summers succeeding each 
other abruptly. Summer lasts from May to October with the valleys extremely 
hot and the highlands cool and damp. Winters are often bitterly cold. 
The population of Yugoslavia is approximately thirteen million, 
85 per cent of which is rural. The two important prune producing areas 
of Serbia and Bosnia have about 4,000,000 and 2,700,000 people respectively. 
2 rural people live in villages, the isolated farm bein e rare. Farms 
are small, averaging from 10 to 20 'acres in Serbia. Life in general is 
extremely simple and cash neeas are few. Farm implements are primitive 
and practically all home-made. 
Practically all of the food used by the family is raised on the 
farms and the women spin the yarn and weave the' clothing. Oxen are used 
largely for draft purposes in Serbia but horses are common in Bosnia. 
Roads in Bosnia are much, better than in Serbia due to the Austrian in- 
fluence in Bosnia before, the war. i-iutomobi les in general i&re a rare 
sight in the rural districts, according to the 1921 census only 48.5 per 
cent of the .people were able to read and write. The literacy of the popu- 
lation is an important factor in educating the prune growers through the 
printed word in improved methods of cultivating, drying and marketing. 
P ositio n of Prunes in the Yugoslav Econo my 
Prune production is of relatively minor importance in the agriculture 
of Yugoslavia. The production of cereals is the main agricultural pursuit 
of the Kingdom, the area devoted to these crops in 1927-28 amounting to 
13, 000,000 acres, mostly corn, -'heat, barley, oats and rye in the order 
mentioned. The production o[ livestock ranks next in importance in the 
agriculture of Yugoslavia. The area devoted to orchards, including plums, 
apples, pears, cherries, figs, olives, walnuts and all other tree fruit and 
' srops, was placed at only 625,000 r^cres in 1927-28, The total number of 
trees of all fruits and nut s on this are? in 1327-28 was 73,511,000 of which 
49,222,00' consisted of plum tr^es. 2To separate statistics are available for 
devoted tc the individual fruits and nuts. 
