air, cows
L2, horses L6, sheep, 7s., goats 5s., each. The principal cereals are
wheat, maize, rye, barley, oats and millet. The cultivation of maize is
increasing in the Danubian and eastern districts. Rice-fields are found in
the neighbourhood of Philippopolis. Cereals represent about 80% of the
total exports. Besides grain, Bulgaria produces wine, tobacco, attar of
roses, silk and cotton. The quality of the grape is excellent, and could
the peasants be induced to abandon their highly primitive mode of
wine-making the Bulgarian vintages would rank among the best European
growths. The tobacco, which is not of the highest quality, is grown in
considerable quantities for home consumption and only an insignificant
amount is exported. The best tobacco-fields in Bulgaria are on the northern
slopes of Rhodope, but the southern declivity, which produces the famous
Kavala growth, is more adapted to the cultivation of the plant. The
rose-fields of Kazanlyk and Karlovo lie in the sheltered valleys between
the Balkans and the parallel chains of the Sredna Gora and Karaja Dagh.
About 6000 lb of the rose-essence is annually exported, being valued from
L12 to L14 per lb. Beetroot is cultivated in the neighbourhood of Sofia.
Sericulture, formerly an important industry, has declined owing to disease
among the silkworms, but efforts are being made to revive it with promise
of success. Cotton is grown in the southern districts of Eastern Rumelia.

Peasant proprietorship is universal, the small freeholds averaging about 18
acres each. There are scarcely any large estates owned by individuals, but
some of the monasteries possess considerable domains. The large
_tchifliks_, or farms, formerly belonging to Turkish landowners, have been
divided among the peasants. The rural proprietors enjoy the right of
pasturing their cattle on the common lands belonging to each village, and
of cutting wood in the state forests. They live in a condition of rude
comfort, and poverty is practically unknown, except in the towns. A
peculiarly interesting feature in Bulgarian agricultural life is the
_zadruga_, or house-community, a patriarchal institution apparently dating
from prehistoric times. Family groups, sometimes numbering several dozen
persons, dwell together on a farm in the observance of strictly communistic
principles. The association is ruled by a house-father (_domakin_,
_stareishina_), and a house-mother (_domakinia_), who assign to the members
th