Read some facts about Croatia today. They have the richest soil in all of Europe, and are the largest nation totally inside of Europe. Grow lots of corn. Export lots of coal. Some gas and oil, but mostly coal.

Must be important to Putin.

Not sure why Croatia would be important to Putin. They were part of the former Yugoslavia that stayed separate from the Warsaw Pact nations while under Tito. He did not join any commitments to the U.S.S.R.
Springfield Armory XDS pistols are made there.

Croatia....??? Or do you mean Ukraine??

There are a number of western and central European countries larger than Croatia. i

We had an exchange student from Croatia, her brother lives in rapid city

Lots of Croats in Timmins.
They have their own Hall-the Croatian Hall.
Good food.

I'm thinking that he means Ukraine.

Croatia is a fairly small country. It has to be Ukraine that Charles is talking about.

Charles said he had a good day in the markets so maybe he fell asleep counting his new coin or had a few too many glasses of his favorite distilled product.

But, yes, let's go with Ukraine is what he meant instead of Croatia. The Donets Basin coal fields straddle both eastern Ukraine and southern Russia but old Vlad would probably like the whole thing.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Donets-Basin

Ukraine is also blessed with great soils, being in one of the Chernozem black soil belts of the world. The other major one is in the western and central Corn Belt of the U.S.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernozem

I know a soil scientist that showed me a global soils map one time that had various attributes. I think the highest score was "9". There were only 3 regions in the world that got a "9" score; the 2 above Chernozem regions and the Pampas of Argentina.

And I thought for sure that Ukrained would be larger than France, the largest country by area in western and central Europe but I was surprised that France still beat out Ukraine 248,573 sq miles to 233,062 sq miles for Ukraine.

Charles can't win them all, even if he raked it big in the markets today!!

Yes, I meant Ukraine. Good catch and thank you.

Article I read about the soil says it is windblown from the base of old glaciers. Black dirt and full of organics.

They used to raise a tone of wheat, spose they still do.

Yeah, well, Chernozem soils aren't mostly loess based. High amounts of organic material found in the black soils most came from developing under grassland conditions in a Goldilocks "just right" combo of situations.



Ukraine and south Russia produce a lot of wheat and other small grains. During some recent pre-plague years, Russia was the leading exporter of wheat. There's about 12 countries that produce/control almost all the wheat that comes onto the global trading market.

Southern Ukraine has a climate a lot like eastern South Dakota so they have increased their production of corn. I think the Ukrainians and the Frenchies produce the most corn in Europe if I remember correctly, but that may be date a bit...

Close to Romania, Ukraine has some mountains. Ukraine has a landscape for you even if you don't like flat land. Carpathians is what the mountains are called.

I hope he means the Ukraine as Croatia is no where near the size of at least a dozen European countries.

Bryce