The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

of the growing season, and heavy summer rain to encourage the development of leaf and temperate fruit, is making the Southern Slay lands most adapted for the breeding of cattle and the cultivation of cereals and fruit-bearing trees. But instead of exporting cereals they, after having satisfied the needs of their population for bread, will turn the surplus of grain products for poultry farming, breeding of cattle, and raising of swine. The winter frosts have another advantage of killing the germs of cattle and tree diseases. Here again British capital and enterprise might find a large field for action, and it largely depends on them whether the surplus output of Serbian agriculture would find a way into Great Britain for the benefit of both nations. The introduction of up-to-date farms, dairies and fruit factories has yet to be made in all these provinces. The plums of Serbia and Bosnia provide a considerable item of the peasants’ income. But in later years the cultivation of finer sorts of apples, pears, and walnut trees has happily increased. These trees grow everywhere in a wild state, and until recently were not valued. There is no sort of fruit-bearing trees of the Mid-European zone for which the Serbian provinces are not the best adapted home. Let us suggest, that thousands of British middleclass families with very small capital may find in Serbia, after the war, a fine field of action, income and enjoyment. By train, as mentioned 246