The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-07
RECOVERING FROM DEVASTATION Natives Returning From
 Macedonian Refuges PLANTING GROUND Invaders Import Steam Flows and Sow the Fields-Disease Wiped Out
 by Rigid Military Sani-
 tary Regulations
PLANTING GROUND D

Nish, Servia, April 25.-(Correspondenc of the Associated Press.) .)-Great numbers of the Servians who fled before the ad- vancing armies of the central powers last fall and winter are returning to their former homes. Most of the returning fugitives come from districts along the Montenegrin and Albanian frontiers, over which they found it impossible to accom- pany the retreating army, and most of them also are of the urban class, as the rural Servian population for the most part remained at home.
 Several carloads of the return Serbs pass northward every day, largely destined for Belgrade, and they seem cheerful enough at the prospect of get ting back to their old homes. Owing to the lack of rolling stock they are obliged to travel in freight cars. but with the warmer weather the discomfort of this is mitigated. So far comparatively few young men have returned. The armies of occupation are doing what they can to assist-in the repatriation.
 FARMS CULTIVATED
 The Servian farms, which have been badly neglected since the outbreak of the war, are now being cultivated. The Ger mans and Austro- Hungarians have brought numbers of steam blows into the country, and the soldiers are everywhere at work, blowing and sowing. Notwith- standing their efforts much land remains fallow. Some of this has been so long uncultivated that a vigorous stand of scrub oak has conquered it.
 The Servian women are doing their part in agricultural work. The military com- manders have effected redistribution of the countrys live stock by acquisitions in those parts not affected by the war and most of the housholds again have a COW, some pigs and chickens. Milk and eggs can be bought everywhere. At Nish milk costs about 10 cents liter and eggs IS cents dozen. Meat is scarce, but bread may be obtained in any quantity and without bread cards The women and children look well fed, but most of the are poorly dressed.
 Several women with whom the Asso- ciated Press correspondent talked said that they were glad the war had passed beyond Servias borders. They wanted to know when their men would return. None had any news of them. It was inmate rial to them they said, who governed Servia in the future, provided there was no more war. One young woman in city dress, however, held different views and expressed them in fairly good French
 FREE OF DISEASE
 A year ago Servia was in the clutches of terrible epidemic of typhus, typhoid fever and other diseases. These, it is as- serted, have been completely wiped out The occupation troops compel the popua- ton to obey the sanitary rules established by the military authorities, with the re- suit that Servian villages have never been so clean. The mud of decades has been carted away, and the streets have been covered with gravel and crushed rock Sanitation in the home is effected through thorough inspection.
 CIVIL government has already been es- tablished in the Austro-H Hungarian and Bulgarion spheres in Servia and the Bull garian territory in Macedonia but the districts held by the Germans are still under military rule, because it is said no permanent occupation of the district is contemplated. Railway traffic and postal service are in the hands of the military authorities, but the Servian population IS permitted to use them Schools and churches have been reopened in many parts of the country.