The daily gazette., 1875-03-29
ROME, March 5, 1875.

ROME, March 5, 1875.
A very paradise is the Roman Cam.
pagna, according to the description by
artists. A very hell upon earth; a
dreary, uninteresting, unhealthy waste,
according to the views of the agricul-
turist, is the land of which we are 90
ing to speak. TO this artists paradise
and agriculturist' hell the attention
of the world is for the moment direct
ed, because its Improvement, by means
OF draining and irrigation, is one of the
plans which Garibaldi has recently
submitted to the world The Campag-
ma, as generally understood, extends
on all sides around Rome, including
portions of ancient Latium and Etru-
rie, and measures some half million
of acres. Some of the portions fur
ther removed from Rome and along
the skirts of the mountains are pretty
well cultivated; there are towns and
villages, and the entire Campagna has
a population of $50, 900 souls. But the
portion to which we shall call atten-
ton is the district Immediately sur
rounding Rome, about $780, acres
in extent, from the mountains along
the course of the Tiber to the sea,
which is vistually uninhabited, if we
except the immediate vicinity Of Rome.
This dreary portion of the Campagna
is more properly designated the Agro
Romano-"agro" being Latinism
signifying the district Immediately
surrounding city. OF the 250,CC0
acres of the Agro Romano perhaps
10000 arc covered with vineyards, viii
las, &c. The rest is pastutage and
fields. The whole extent, however, is
unhealthy, and, 50 to say, depopulatcd.
Moritz Jokad, the hungarian novelist,
describes in Il remarkable manner in
one of his shorter stories the conflict
of a pestilential swamp with the sur
sounding culture; how the swamp dra-
gon stretched out arm after arm and
finally succeeded in becoming master
of the entire district, which had been
desolated by war, and man was no lon
ger there to assist culture in preventing
its encroaches.
A PRosAIc DESCRIPTION OF THE CAM
PAGNA.
But what is the true picture of the
Agro Romano? 1t is not paradise; it
is not exactly hell; but it is purga-
tory, a temporary punishment, as it
were, for the sins of man. Human |
even human warfare |
against nature, have made the Cam
pagna the desert that it now is. The
Agro Romano was not always vast |
desert, it was made such by the Ro.
mans under the imperial era and by |
the barbarians who conquered ancient |
Rome, who destroyed the aqueducts
and the forests on the mountains; and
lheir successors have only continued
in u slower and equally fatal manner
the sins committed centuries ago. The
Agro Romano, with the exception of
he district immediately surrounding
Rome, is unhealthy and almost entire
y depopulated. In the vineyards there
re dwellings for the peasants, who re-
ide there in winter, but from June to
November are compelled by the MAS
ma to retire to the city; the other
,art has neither peasant dwellings nor
peasants, and when cultivated it is
lone by an invasion of laborers from
djacent provinces, who work there
ew months, from October to June ,liv-
ng in caves or in tents, and then retire
gain to the mountains.
In July but few persons remain i'm
his part % :he Campagna proper, and
t these two out of five are sure to be
own with fever. Not 1000 persons
emain in the entire cultivable districts;
ven the churches are closed, and the
RESTS seek refuge in Rome. But IA
nall portion of the land is cultivated, t
le rest is given over to the pasturage i
the long-horned cattle, which live $
l. state of semi-widness. Where L
is carried on, the peasants C
Sc IA plough dating from the time of Il
ing Numa, with which they manage ?
} scratch the ground a little and the q
oke-oxen must seek their own proven a
er on the parched steppes, or in sum- q
er are fed with rations of bread. The t
title eat up all the young trees, and Y
hat they leave the peasant takes d
easure in dcstroying-a privilege in n
uded in his contract. This contract b