The ground is sown every third year. During the first year it lies in fallow. It is laboured the second year, and the third year it produces :A crop. The soil is wrought six times; the first operation is called ru/iitura; the second, which ought to be a foot and a half (let p, is called reconditura ; the third, refenitura; the North, yin quartatura ; the fifth, rifrescatura; and the sixth, sema tura. From the great quantity rain which falls, par ticularly in the southern part of the Campagna, and front the rapidity with which it descends, the greatest care is taken to carry it off the fields. In every field there arc three kinds of ditches, viz. small parallel ditches called lire by the ancients, and placed at the dis tance of three feet. These are traversed by wide ditches, placed at a greater distance, and large canals, called colliquire, carry off from these the superfluous water.
Excellent fruit, vegetables, and almost every species of grain are produced in the Campagna. Extensive plantations of Turkish wheat grow in the lower grounds, it rises to a considerable height, and is used for various purposes. The stalks of it Form canes for the support of the vines, and arc also used in the construction of cottages ; the leaf is employed for thatching them, and likewise for mattrasses, and the dour composes Various dishes, which are eaten by all ranks, and arc regarded as particularly wholesome and nutritive.
The large reed, (the arundo (lanai), which rises to the height of twenty feet, is cultivated with great ad vantage. Oxen and asses feed upon the leaves of it: It forms an admirable support to the vines in a country not nith exposed to violent winds, and after pc " is sta t uselul That part of agri, nick relates to the breeding of cat tle is ,ompletcly neglected in the Campagna. Al. Bon stetten observes, that at Torre-Paterno, within seven leagues of Rome, he saw a herd of several hundred cows, widen the farmer would not take the trouble of milking, though milk is Ps clear at Rome as in any of the other large cities of Europe. The great defect, however, in the agricultural operations of this and other parts of Italy, arises from the total want of judgment which is displayed in the application of the soil. Vine yards arc planted in the most fertile and best watered land, which is particularly fitted for the growth of corn. Corn is sown in land which is particularly adapted for the vine ; and wood is planted in the finest meadows, while the ground fit for wood is not used at all. J'ai vu des champs," says Bonstetten, e scarpes it pierreu cultives en ble, qui rendent ci peine deux pour un, tandis pie la vigne etoit placee dans le terrain le plus Bras et le mieux arrow, et que lc tiers du betail avoit peri de Calm faute de loin pour le nourrir pendant quinze jours de neige."
On the day of St Lawrence, (the 10th of August,) when the harvest is completed, and when the heat is generally greater than in any other season of the year, the inhabitants begin to burn the stubble, the ashes of which is almost the only manure which is employed. As the crops of grain grow to a considerable height, the reaper never stoops, but takes off the head and about a foot and a half of the stalk, and thus leaves the stubble about two or three feet long. After the conflagration is over, numbers of snakes, of a large size, are scorched to death, and. others are choked, in attempting to cross the dusty roads, in order to escape from the fire. The smoke from the burning straw is extremely offensive to the traveller; and it not unfrequently happens, that the hedges or forests are burnt down by the flames.
The very small number of farm houses which exist in the Campagna, are miserable dwellings, built as ap pendages to old towers or temples, and are constructed out of the fragments of these ancient edifices. The in habitants of these wretched hovels are compelled to de sert them in the middle of summer, when fevers and agues prevail in the country ; and they sleep either at Rome under the porticoes of the palaces and public buildings, or in the towns which are nearest to their farms. if they remain too long in the country, they are seized with the diseases which we have mentioned ; and in the month of July, August, and September, the great proportion of patients in the Roman hospitals are the peasants from the surrounding country.
It appears from the testimony of Strabo, Pliny, Varna, and other ancient authors, that the air of the Campagna was formerly very salubrious except in a few places near the sea, where the soil was marshy. The unwhole someness of the climate is said to have commenced about the sixth century, and to have arisen from the over flowing of the Tiber, in consequence of the accumulated rains by which it was raised above its former bed. It does not appear, how ever, from the best observations, that the had air (eattiva aria) of the Campagna is ow ing to the stagnant water arising from the the Tiber, for it is chiefly in spring, in the tim6.-of,the greatest drought, and in the months of August and Sep tember, long after the inundations of winter, that the bad air prevails. IA'hen the first rains of autumn suc ceed to the great droughts, the bad air completely dis appears. On the Rocca di Papa, and on one side of the plain of Tivoli, the bad air is never experienced ; but at different heights below this line, it seems to be equally prevalent. In 1775, the heights or Trinita del Monte %yt re reckoned out of the reach of the had air, but in 1802 they w ere completely under its influence.