Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1921-01-09 | Page 25 | Beauty Spot of Ancient Rome Will be Reclaimed

O'. BEAUTY SPOT OF ANCIENT ROME WILL BE RECLAIMED OST1A, Italy. Jan. 8 Efforts arc' beJnK made to reclaim and plant parts' of the vast tract of land which! stretches for several miles around' Koine and goes by the name of "Cam i pagna Romana." If has been allowed to remain idle and unculnvaied ever since the fall of the Roman empire. Befnri that lnut ii was a sort of terrestrial paradise; villas and gardens gar-dens were dotted all over il as far as the eye could eee. it was luxuriant Willi fruits mi, I flrkvi'rc It cnnnlinrl food and work for thousands upon 1 thousands of men. It was one of thej most beautiful and intensively cultivated culti-vated spots in the world. When Rome, however, was obliged to resign her position as "the mis tress of tho world." the ' cainpagua" was abandoned and gradually became a marshy, malaria-infected desert, inhabited in-habited only by a few hardy shepherds shep-herds Now, however, the law which was recently passed, decreeing that anyone 1 who does not cultivate his land to the j utmost of its rapacity is liable to have) the land confiscated, it beginning to have Its effects. Prince Aldobrandinl j has engaged a company to reclaim a huge estate of several thousands ol acres, which he owns in the "cam-pagna." "cam-pagna." The work has already begun and an experimental station has been set up at 09tla. The land was first of all drained and then arrangements were made to obtain water from the Tiber; for irrigation. Electric tractors to draw the plows were then bought and I various kinds of fruits, vegetables; and cereals cultivated In order to find out how fertile the land la and What kind of crop it is most adapted for. The results were beyoud the wild eat hopes of any of tie promoters of ; the company. The land, after lying, idle for centuries, seems to have, stored up its fertility throughout all that time and now yields crop upon crop with unstinting hand. or,