Evening star., 1920-11-21
|BULGAR|AALAND
Of AGRICULTURE
Frontier Suggests Grand
Canyon Of U. s.; Produces
Finest Perfume.

! Reported entry of Serbian forces
iinto Tsaribrod. hitherto on the Bull
! sarian side Of the border. preparatory
to occupation Of Il strip. of territory
detached from bulgaria by the treaty
| OF Neuiliy. is the occasion for iSsu-
ance of the following bulletin from
the Washington, u. g.. headquarters
o. tna National Geographic society:
! when the luxurious Orient eX-
press still was making its semi week
, ~ trip from ia:is 10 Constantinople
many a passenger along the sector
from Nish to Sofia may suddenly have
rubbed his eyes and wondered whether
he was not traversing the Alps rather
than the Balkans
One traveller has described the
roadbed along this segment to be the
worst in the world. and the mountain
scenery to be the finest. Probably
both statements were exaggerated.
But the ravines. bowiders and torren-
tial streams of the Nishava river re-
gion. just before the railway crosses
the Bulgarian frontier, are compar-
able with the Alps and sometimes
suggest our own Grand Canyon region
in miniature.
Garden Movement Thrives.
"Tsarbrod is inconspicuous. II
shelters a population of only a few
thousand. 1t has the inevitable cas-
lie. which still seems to keep a
houses. Significantly. in view of the
economic life of Bulgaria. and the
recent marked preponderance of agra
rian representation in the govern
ment, each house has its garden.
"Agriculturally. Bulgaria seems a
land of tobacco and roses. But
though these aromatic products rank
high statistically. the home garden
movement has long been a habit in
Bulgaria and the major portion Of
this garden to table production does
not show in either export or local
market records
after the Orient express passes the
border line it traverses the Slivnitza
battlefield. the Bunker Hill of Bull
Garia, and the first important city
after Sofia is Philippopolis, in the vi
cinity of which ane of the world
most esthetic industries is establish
ed-that of cultivating rose gardens
to distill altar Of roses.
The Partisan women who appear
at Deauville so perfumed that the
winds were lovesick.' or dainty Miss
America, who adds an olfactory to q
visual appeal when she trips into a
ballroom. alike are dependent upon
the loving care of the rose-gardener
peasants Of Bulgaria's phonetic Kala-
mazoo. Tobacco is the other major
and distinctive crop of Bulgaria. It
is not stretching a point to say that
your nose will know Bulgaria in a
continental cafe, not only by the
strange invisible perfume Of the
lady. but by the smoke from the Gig
arctic of her escort.
At Philippopolis. under pressure of
expected attacks from Turkey, Prince
Alexander was installed as the head
Of the newly united Bulgarian states
In 1885. Unexpectedly it was Serbia,
not Turkey. which made the move in
protest against the union with east
ern Rumela. The Serbian forces mobil-
lied in the Nishava valley; the Bulgarian
army was far away. Hence famous
order. which resulted in the making Of
military history. to commanders of Bull
gar units to hasten to Slivnitza The
speed with which the troops were
moved. in this helter-skelter fashion,
was remarkable. Their movement was
accelerated by orders to citizens to
furnish supplies as they passed. The
advance guard held the Serbian forces,
which were headed for Sofia or Sliv-
nitza. When reinforcements arrived
the enemy was defeated. The Serbian
armistice proposal was presented at
Tsaribrod. This incident gave Bull
garia sense of national unity and
prowess which may be compared to
that which Japan attained by her de-
feat of the Russians"