OCR Text |
Show MAY RECLAIM WASTE SPOT Efforts Are to Be Made to Restore to Fertility the Famous Roman Campagna. No book on Italy is complete without with-out some reference to the Campagna di Roma, a district upon which a curse seems to have fallen. It is a grassy plain, something like an American prairie, about forty by seventy miles in area, Rome being near its center. This district was once the province prov-ince of Latium, and was then the richest rich-est and most populous country in the world, but it is now nearly destitute of inhabitants. For a part of the year shepherds and herdsmen make it their home, but even they do not linger longer than absolutely necessary. neces-sary. In fact, the Campagna is the home of malaria, so deadly that strangers stran-gers dare not to pass a single night exposed ex-posed to its influence. The trouble with the Campagna arises from its being underlaid by a bed of stone impervlous.to water. The spring rains fill the soil, a vast quantity quan-tity of vegetable matter is accumulated, accumu-lated, and the summer sun evaporates this foul water, filling the air with malaria of the most deadly sort. The ancient Romans knew the danger, dan-ger, and averted it with extensive drains; but the moderns suffered the drains to become choked, and the finest portion of Italy became a wilderness. wil-derness. The soil is very rich, and it is pleasant to hear that an effort is being made to reclaim the Champagua for the uses of man. |