The crops of Old Serbia are generally similar to those of the Sumadija, but in Macedonia they are more varied. Thus the Breg alnica valley near KoCane is famous for its rice fields and near Stip for opium poppy yielding a high percentage of opium, ex ported from Salonika. In the Strumica valley farther south cotton, rice, sesame, tobacco, with much fruit and a variety of other crops, all occur. Gevgeli, the frontier station on the Skoplje-Salonika line, is famous for its silk production and silk factories.
4. The Coastal Belt.—The general geographical interest of this region far exceeds its economic one. Even the name is some what deceptive, for parts of the coast are as barren and arid as the karst lands of the interior. Characteristic Dalmatian land scapes are best seen in such areas as the Riviera of the Seven Castles, which stretches from Spalato to Trau (Trogir), form ing a narrow, fertile strip about io m. in length, watered by short, spring-fed streams and backed and sheltered by bare and waterless limestone hills ; or round Ragusa, one of the most per fect examples of the Mediterranean city-state in miniature. The olive grows round Spalato, but olive oil is imported from Italy.
The coastal belt is for the most part unsuited to cereals, which are grown in the poljen of the interior. But the marshy area round the mouth of the river Narenta forms an exception to the general statement. Wine is made and exported largely to France to be mingled with locally-produced kinds. Special prod ucts of some interest are the liqueur maraschino, distilled from cherries at Spalato and Sebenico (Sibenik) ; insect powder made from locally-grown and wild pyrethrum, and a variety of sub stances obtained from the aromatic plants of the maquis. Among the last rosemary (especially from the islands of Lesina [Hvar] and Lissa [Vis] ) , sage and noble laurel may be named. Apart from the shrubs, wood is rare.
Minerals are not very important, but large beds of cement stones occur near Spalato and form the basis of a considerable industry using the water-power of the short river Jader, which gushes out of the limestone nearby. The water-power of the river Kerka near Sebenico and of the river Cetina near Almissa (Omig) is also used for such industries as the making of calcium carbide and cyanamide. These industries were mainly established
with Italian capital. Fishing is of some importance, especially on the islands, where Lissa has a canning industry. The catch includes tunny, sardines, mackerel and crabs and lobsters.
5. The Dinaric Karst and Mountain Region.—If the coast of Dalmatia is apt to be estimated too highly, precisely the re verse is true of this region which is less unproductive than it appears at first sight. From the human standpoint the con trasts are very striking, for if Ragusa and Spalato are western and Latin, with many evidences of a great past, towns like Sarajevo, Mostar, Trebinje and Cetinje are thoroughly eastern in appearance, and the rural population is in many ways highly primitive and backward. The area owes its Slav population to the Turkish advance, to the same cause, that is to say, as that which led ultimately to the decay of the coastal towns. The Slays of the interior fled, at various times, before the advancing Turk, and were constrained to occupy and use poor land.
Montenegro is particularly well fitted for live stock rearing be cause of the appearance of schists in the mountain belt which lies east of the Zeta valley. Here there is a better and more permanent water-supply and a richer growth of grass.
Cereals, especially maize, with wheat and barley, are pro duced, if not on a very large scale, in the depressions of the karst, as in the basins of Knin, Sinj, Imotski and Vrgorac in Dalmatia; in the similar basins of western Bosnia round Glamo6, Livno and Duvno; and in the wider and more fertile parts of the river valleys, especially in the lower Narenta valley in Hercego vina, and in those of the Morae'a near Podgorica and of the White Drin round Ipek in Montenegro. As contrasted with Bosnia, which is definitely Central European in climate and crops, Mediter ranean influences penetrate a considerable distance into both Montenegro and Hercegovina, very fine tobacco is produced in Hercegovina and to a less extent in Montenegro, in the former especially round Trebinje, Mostar and Ljubugki. Wine is also produced in both.