Show 7 MARSH ES beets from marshes prepared by national Nill onil geographic society washington D C HE marshes of 0 italy Tex have changed face from a wide expanse of almost useless land they have been gradually turned into healthy farm lands two years rears ago premier benito mussolini gave orders that by october 28 1935 all the stagnant waters of this region should be drained off to the sea malaria should be eradicated farm houses built and populated with us as many peasant P families drawn from the crowded agricultural provinces 0 of the north and that three cities should rise in the deserted land Lit cittoria toria sa bandla and Pont lnla la the waste and flooded plain at the doors of rome was to become a garden and supply the mhd needs of the capital where two years year ago wild boars baars roamed in the broom thickets you can see today the neat Lit cittoria toria a so called to perpetuate this achievement all the surrounding land Is dotted by hundreds of bright healthful farmhouses whereas two years ago peasants lived in primitive huts twenty miles to the south near the sea sabaudia Saba Sab udla audia named in honor of the house of savoy to which italy owes its political unity Is growing like a mushroom in the midst of a vast forest that will be its natural park and at the foot of the mountains la will rise in 1935 recalling the etruscan population that 2500 years ago first settled and cultivated this land this city has not yet been staked out b but ut the date for the binau inauguration gur atlon has been settled this astounding transformation could not have been possible had there not been a silent preparatory engineering nork ork since 1020 1026 a consortium with senator natale a very capable engineer at the head has been working steadily and without beating the big drum one hundred and sixty miles of road have been constructed miles of canals excavated five villages built in the marshy desert and of tire lire more than already spent A huge canal 85 feet wide gathers the torrential waters at the foot of the hills and skirting the lowland leads them to the sea 24 miles away away fourteen thousand men are at work today in the region the hydraulic engineering gi work has been the indispensable premise to the colonization an enterprise ter prise that has been entrusted to the great war veteran organization the opera Naz lonale Com combattente battenti and to those land owners who nho have the necessary grit and faith to follow the lead the veterans will build about farm houses and the land owners about story of the marshes we must go back in history a little to grasp the general picture the marshes are a rectangular plain about acres in extents extent which Is hemmed in on two sides by the lepine mountains and on the other two by the sea but along the sea runs a dune three miles wide that prevents the waters from flowing to the sea the region therefore Is like a large shallow basin in which the water collects and cannot drain between the great dune and the sea lies iles a series of lagoons the old romans partly solved the problem by digging through the dune a gigantic canal called the rio martino Martl no the pre pretty tty legend attached to this name has been told the legend of kin king martino Martl no who tor for love of beautiful ninta ninfa dug out this kind of culebra cut but was defeated by the magic of the wicked king kin moor the unhappy oung lady threw herself from the tower of ninfa into tile the adjoining lake and became the evil spirit of malaria the fact Is that some unknown roman gentleman called martinus artinus SI did the work and succeeded in getting the bulk of the waters to flow out of the lowland to the sea however as the roman empire declined and the barbarians invaded italy civilization tell fell to such a low ebb that the noblest knights no longer knew how to scribble their names so small was the production of writing material that roman classics were erased from precious vellum sheets to the contracts tor for the sale of pieces of land during that period public works were a abandoned banao ned and the swamps their kingdom pirates roarn roamed ed freely over the seas and the pon tine coast had to be guarded by strong towers to prevent the men of barbary from landing and putting uie the villages to sack and ruin T to 0 make things worse nature also took a hand in the game with that great pressure which causes the mountains to rise the broad sand dune that runs along the sea was buckled and the bottom of the rio martino canal was raised a few feet toward the center of its course the outlet of the waters was thereby closed off it iter alter the tall fall of the western roman empire the region that once had been well cultivated and livened with tillas and cities again bees became me a swampy and desolate waste popes tried to redeem it several attempts to redeem the land are recorded kings and popes tried and failed but the first with a modern turn of mind to accomplish something effective was leo X that great pope 1513 1521 declared the draining of the region was a work of public utility and therefore expropriation fir pria lation tion was a justified procedure ile he granted the enterprise to his nephew giuliano llano del medici who made a good business of it giuliano llano would invite the owners of the land private persons or communities to go into partnership with him in the enterprise the owners fearing large expenses would refuse whereupon giuliano uliano Gl would expropriate tor for a song the worst case befell the indolent community of terracina lna following its refusal giuliano llano at a relatively small expense dug a short canal to the sea the accumulated water that for centuries had remained dammed up behind the town ran off gaily and in a very short time giuliano llano became the lucky owner of vast tracts of wonderfully der fully fertile lind land on the outskirts of the town the citizens of terra cina alna lived for years in lamentation cy this clever work giuliano Gl uliano grew quite rich two further attempts are worthy of record one was that of sixtus V who iho in had the old water channel the flumen enlarged into a broad canal that in his honor was renamed sisto two cent iries arles later plus VI called the hydraulic en engineer j gaetano nl to avail himself of the modern technique tor for definitely resolving the problem the old applan way submerged for a thousand years was given back to traffic and along it a great canal was excavated that took the name of linea pla pia the pope naturally much pleased with his accomplishment had a tiny obelisk erected near torre tre ponti on which are engraved the words OLIM PONTINA PALUS NUNC AGER PONTI once the marshes now the fields not many years later an earthquake gave a bad twist to the obelisk and in malaria drove a way away the people who had attempted to settle on the land also the benedictine monks tor for whom the pope had built a nice convent at torre tre bonti had to leave or died the traveler could drive along the restored way but in winter on both sides of the road large sheets of water extended for miles this was the paradise of sea gulls ducks and geese and of 0 the roman hunters who stalked tile vald fowl while wading behind innocent looking old horses great work now an end has been put to all this when the land owners were called by the government to unite in a consortium for planning and carrying n out the final hydraulic drainage of the region ion the government agreed to contribute to the huge expense the large share of per cent the actual work of road building and canal digging began in 1920 under senator direction in the meanwhile an effective organization was created with the as tl 61 stance of the rockefeller found foundation on to feht the malaria because unless this enemy had been destroyed it would not have been possible to conquer the land the first and most important experimental peri mental center w was as created in the old caetans castle of 0 sermoneta Sern ioneta when tile the work was started statistics showed that 05 per cent of the population were infected with the disease and that virtually no infant reached its first year without an attack of fever yellow little littie faces and sunken eyes stared at you in the medieval streets now new infections are p practically aill unknown and pink and white whit e little cherubs greet you after driving away the water and the malaria the next nest step was to populate and tr transform ans form the Is land nd T the h a government issued orders that by the year 1035 for the anniversary of the march on rome every acre of arable land excepting woods takes lakes and certain tracts of lowland awaiting special work should be colonized the government has offered financial assistance to the land owners in building on every 3 30 acres of land a house houe with stables pig and chicken pens and e P baking oven money blaney Is loaned at 2 per cent interest it if the owner refuses his land Is expropriated and the war veterans organization undertakes the work |