e serious also in 1968. In 1972 most crops were
adversely affected by a spring drought and excessive rains in the early
fall; the grape crop was an almost total loss.

Soils of superior and intermediate quality make up almost three-fourths
of the country's surface. The Danubian plateau contains several grades
of chernozem (black earth), which gradually give way to gray forest
soils in the foothills of the Stara Planina. A degraded chernozem called
_smolnitsa_, or pitch soil, predominates in the Thracian Plain, the
Tundzha and Burgas lowlands, and the Sofia Basin. This central region is
encircled at higher elevations by a belt of chestnut and brown forest
soils. Similar chestnut soils are also found in the Strandzha upland, in
the basins of the eastern Rodopi region, and in the Struma and Maritsa
valleys. Brown forest soils and mountain meadow soils occur in the Stara
Planina and in the Rila, Pirin, and western Rodopi. Alluvial soils,
often of good quality, are found alongside the rivers, particularly the
Danube and Maritsa, and also in several basins.

LAND USE

In 1970 agricultural land comprised almost 15 million acres, or 53
percent of the country's land area. Sixty-nine percent of the
agricultural land was suitable for field crops; 4 percent consisted of
meadows; and about 6 percent was devoted to vineyards, orchards, and
other perennial crops. Natural pastures constituted more than 20 percent
of the agricultural land. Bulgarian economists have repeatedly pointed
out that the per capita acreage of farmland in the country, excluding
pastures, is among the lowest in the world.

According to official statistics the area of agricultural land increased
by 840,000 acres in the 1960s as a result of the expansion of grazing
areas by 1.1 million acres and the simultaneous loss of 270,000 acres of
cultivated land. The loss of cultivated acreage was caused by the
diversion of land to industrial and other uses and by severe soil
erosion. The acreage devoted to vineyards and orchards nevertheless
increased by 100,000 acres, or 12 percent.

Land Protection

More than half the cultivated acreage is subject to erosion.
Increasingly large areas degraded by erosion have remained uncultivated
each year, but they continue to be included in the annual statistics on
farmland acreage. The unused area of plowland expanded from 720,000
acres in 1960 to 1.26 million acres in 1970. Another 1.5 million to 2
million acres have been r