[Félix Kánitz on animal husbandry in northern Bulgaria and the Stara Planina at the end of the Turkish occupation].
The Hungarian geographer, archaeologist, and ethnographer Kánitz Félix, great friend and admirer of the Bulgarian people has left valuable and comprehensive information about North Bulgaria and the Balkan Mountain by the end of the Ottoman oppression in his work La Bulgarie Danubienne et le Balkan (1882). The book contains also valuable references concerning the animal breeding activities within the 1860-1880 period in this part of the world. In the mountainous region in Bulgaria sheep- and goat-breeding were well developed, and this accounted to a large extent for the destruction of forests. Numerous and large flocks of sheep were raised in Dobrouja, a portion of which belonged to the famous shepherds of the town of Kotel. During the winter season a great number of flocks from Transylvania were also kept in this region. The breeding of sheep was the main source of meat supply both for North Bulgaria and the Balkan Mount region and for the markets of the Ottoman Empire. It also yielded a total of 120,000 okas of wool (78 okas = 100 kg) annually to meet the needs of the Empire manufacture as centered at that time in the town of Sliven for the production of textiles for the army. The raising of cattle was also prosperous during the same time. On the other hand, stock breeding was unfavourably influenced by heavy taxing in the form of both cash payment and remuneration in kind, by requisitioning (especially in war time) and the endless thefts and robberies done by tatars and cherkesses that had moved to this country from Caucasus. This exploitation concerned equally Bulgarian and Turkish animal breeders.
D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000266:history*; D002031:Bulgaria; D003469:Culture; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006814:Hungary; D014421:Turkey
Feliks Kanits za zhivotnovudstvoto v Severna Bulgariia i Stara planina v kraia na otomanskoto robstvo