Servia

a kingdom of Europe situated on the right bank of the Danube. It forms a buffer state between Hungary and Turkey. In point of altitude, surface features, and productions, Servia is comparable to Vermont and New Hampshire, but its area is as great, and its population is over three times as great, as that of the two states combined. The people live in small villages and walk out to till their fields or guard their stock. Grain and fruit are raised as in New England. Maize or Indian corn is the largest crop. It is fed to hogs or ground into meal, American fashion. Wheat is the second crop in value and, strange to say, plums are the third. Tobacco, silk, and wine are produced. Herds of swine run free in the mountains and feed on acorns. Gold, copper, lead, zinc, antimony, and silver are mined in small quantities. Large shipments of lumber and cask staves are made. The country trades chiefly with Vienna and Budapest. There is much need of better roads and a settled government. The people are mostly Slavonians, and are adherents of the Greek Church. There are a few thousand Moslems, Roman Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Gypsies. Only fourteen per cent of the population can read and write. A system of public schools, including high schools, normal schools, and a university with sixty-two professors and 463 students, is maintained at public expense and is modeled on German lines. The people are nearly all holders of a bit of soil, so that there is little or no abject poverty; yet the country as a whole is poor and unable to engage in roadbuilding or extensive improvements of any sort. Servia became fully independent in 1878. See Belgrade

STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources: