The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-27

/
| OF these few TWO out OF five are sure to be down
| with lever. Not 600 persons remain in the entire
| cultivabe district; even the churches are
| closed and the priests seek refuge In Rome. But
small portion OF the land is cultivated, the rest
is given over TO the pasturage Of the long horned
cattle, which live IN a state OF semi-wildness.
Where cultivation is carried on, the peasants use
plough dating from the time OF King Numa, with
wh.cn they manage 20 scratch the ground little
AID the yoEe-oxen must seek their own
provender on the parched steppes,
| or in summer are fed with rations of
bread. The cattle eat up all the young
trees, and what they leave the peasant takes
pleasure in destroy ing-a privilege included in his
contract. This contract Is given only for period
OF nine years. and the peasant has no inducement
| to preserve the woods that still remain. Poultry
| Ii as good as Unknown, because there are no
women TO attend to them during the ear.
THE ESTATES or TIE AGRO RON NO.
The part Of the Campagna OF which we are
! speaking IS at the present divided as follows -
| There are estates having an area from 5000 to
7,AO0 hectares, from 1000 10 30o0 33 from 900 to
2,o00 "a from 500 to 1000 6S from 800 $780, I22
from 100 to 800 and 4S OF lesser dimensions. More
than fourth OF the entire Agro Romano is thus
divided into estates OF over 2, 900 hectares; about
one.haf is occupied by estates measuring from
500 TO 1000 hectares; the other fourth IS In the
possession OF smaller prOprletors. AS regards the
division OF the land in 1870 60,930 hectares were
subject to the law OF mortman and g. 600 TO The
law OF entail; therefore, $4,000 hectares Of undis-
possible property, while the whole area OF free
property amounted TO 1871 hectares, in the pos.
session or 204 prOpretors. (The laws OF mortman
and entail exist no longer in Italy.) The large
estates OF the rich and noble proprietors are
generally given over TO a class OF persons called
VINO cultivate a portion OF their farms with
grain and subet the pasturage 70 other
persons There are some 800 estates comprised
in the Agro Romano. which are rented to no more
than q hundred or these 'mercanti di Campagna,"
some OF them renting TWO or three or more
tates. Only one or two estates are worked by
their proprietors. The Italian mobiles, land owners
have little interest for agricultural matters
they are satisfied TO receive their rents rom the
'mercanti," and both care little nothing for the
Improvement OF the land, each cndeav0ring to Sc.
cure as much profit possible and III the shortest
possible time.
THE METHOD OF WORKING THE GREAT ESTATES
is very curious. kind OF recruiting sergeant
provided with FUNDS for hand money. IS despatched
a year before 10 engage aborers. He collects
about him a little army, OF which ne remains the
'caporale'' during its tern0pf service. lie divides
the army into two portons-the first consisting Of
the able.bodied men, for the harder work, the lat
ter OF older men. women and children. The latter
division brings with it q convoy OF mules or asses
loaded with cooking utensils, implements and
other ssaries. The army is fed by the farmers
or the "mercantp' with bad rations and lives in
tue tuia caves or In badly constructed nuts, Sleep
ing, however, in summer in the open air. In the
course OF single season these little armies are
sadly decimated by fever; many people die and
are buried In che dreary wastes; others return
home fever-strcken and hasten to send other la.
borers TO Nil up their places, since they have made
a contract TO WORK The whole season, and il they
do not fulfil 1t they receive no pay. There is a
brotherhood in Rome whose mission 1t is TO seek
up the SICK and even the dead on the AgrO Ro-
mano to take the former TO hospital IN Rome ana
to bnry the dead where they ial For some years
past the municipality Of the city OF Rome has APP
pointed six Roman physicians to reside at various
points Of the Campagna. in order tnat they may
render medical assistance TO the suffering. Is not
this a melancholy pIctures But it approaches
pretty nearly the truth.
THE SOIL OF THE CAMPAGYA.
This the people thus the land! vast stretch
OF land without human habitatiOn, with the
exception OF ancient structures ana some
palaces, where the proprietor NAV spend week
or two in the spring. The Agro Romano may be
divided into three parts First, the valley OF the
fiber, down to the Isoa Sacra, IN some parts
three or four komeJers broad in some parts mar
rover. Here we see neither houses nor trees
the wide plain is given up to pasturage, dotted
here and there with fields OF grain. cultivated how
ever in 4 most miserable manner. Second. broad
stretch OF land along the sea- reaching from
Clvita Veccnia to the Pontine marshes, desert.
Ike with sand hills; here and there, as in the
valley Of the Tiber, fields and pasturage, dots OF
stunted forest growth and lakes OF stagnant
water. Third, the so-caled highlands, but which
are really nothing but small hills, connected by
pretty, fruitful valleys, but all devastated during
the rainy season by torrents which carry away
the greater portion OF the soil to the bed of the
Tiber. The cattle and the peasants and
the "mercantin have destroyed nearly all
the forest growths on the hillsdes; the
cutivahle portions are sown with grain, the
res; is given over to the herds. The farmers
give themselves no trouble to procure cgress for
the rain water, which forms ponds and lakes and
swamps in the valleys, and grasp acre after acre
OF land With every year. In spring even the most
barren portions of the AgrO Romano smile in the
beauty OF flowers, and of the green grass and
foliage, but toward the middle of June the grain
Is all harvested, The grass is parched up the lakes
nave become swamps, and the swamps are covered
with slime and emit their poisonous exhalatlons.
The cattle are watered In tanks supplied from the
running brooks, but after passing the tanks no
further provision is made to carry OF the water,
which Geluges the land. and is lett again 70 form
the inevitable swamps. Only on few estates
can exceptions be made to this picture. One or
two proprietors have threshing machines In oper.
alton and have built stalls for their cattle, and
plough the land in a civilized manner, but the
estates so managed are only small GASES In the
midst OF the great melancholy desert.
THE REASON OF THE DECAY.
And this desert-was 1t always de sert, a
breeding ground OF pestilence, a hideous frame OF
rum and oesolation and decay around the Eternal
City2 Historians differ in opinion on this point,
but the conclusion ut which most OF them arrive
IL that the Campagna, though never a place cele.
brated for its saluDrity, was at one time thickly
populated provided with forests, and the pesti.
lential places were few and far between. Many
historians say that neither in the days OF the