ABSTRACT
The farming system is the typical Balkan mixture, each farmer keeping a few sheep on remote pastures, cultivating a patch of maize, vines, or plum trees in the valley. In these conditions much larger differences of income exist; a type of capitalist peasant arises who owns the processing equipment, vats for storing brandy, wine cellars, or primitive wooden machinery for wool combing. The main reasons for its prosperity are: first, the black earth soil; and second, the systematic colonization of the area in the eighteenth century in medium-sized peasant farms. The great weakness of peasant farming in all these dry regions, the high proportion of working animals and shortage of productive live stock, is very evident here. One and the same farm can combine both types of farming, working a plot in the fertile valley and keeping sheep in the barren hills. The weakness of the farming system is its low intensity and conservatism.
