sylvanian plateau.
Lighter brown soils are more prevalent in rolling lands and in foothills
throughout the country.

Soils become progressively poorer at higher elevations and as the slopes
become steeper. Layered soils, which take over as elevations increase,
vary widely and tend to become thinner and poorer at higher elevations
until bare rock is exposed. In some lower areas, where there are areas
of brown forest soils, erosion is a serious problem. Although the sandy
and alluvial soils along the Danube River are of excellent quality and
are valuable where drainage is good, those in a fairly wide belt along
the river are too moist for cultivation of most crops.

Vegetation

Before the land was cleared, lowland Romania was a wooded steppe area,
but the natural vegetation has largely been removed and replaced by
cultivated crops. Forests still predominate on the highlands. Of the
country's total area, about 63 percent is agricultural land; 27 percent
is forest; and 10 percent is bare mountain or water surface or is used
in some way that makes it unsuitable for forest or cultivation. Of the
agricultural land, 65 percent is under cultivation, 30 percent is
pasture and meadow, and 5 percent is orchard and vineyard (see ch. 15).

Forests remain on most of the slopes that are too steep for easy
cultivation. Most of the larger forests are in Transylvania and western
Moldavia in a roughly doughnut-shaped area that surrounds the
Transylvanian plateau. Broadleaf deciduous and mixed forests occur at
lower elevations; forests at higher levels are coniferous with
needle-leaf evergreens. There are alpine sheep pastures at 5,000- and
6,000-foot elevations, and tundra vegetation occurs at some of the
highest locations.

Orchards are found in all sections of the country. Peaches can be grown
in Walachia, but only those fruits that can tolerate colder winters are
raised in Moldavia and Transylvania. Vineyards, especially on the
Walachian mountain slopes, have become more important since World War
II, and wine, although it is not of a quality that receives
international acclaim, is exported.

Natural Resources

The most important natural resources are the expanses of rich arable
land, the rivers, and the forests. The land is agriculturally
self-sufficient and, when fertilizers become more readily available,
crop yields will be appreciably larger. The rivers have a high potential
for the generation of hydroelectric power. Mos