VICTORY AT THERMOPYLAE

e [Music] in our time as in all times it is the farmer who is the basic unit of society the farmer working in his fields from early morning to early evening raising the food and raw materials upon which society exists life is seldom easy for the European farmer perennially struggling against the weather insects plant diseases and uncertain prices for his produce but in few countries of Europe is farming so hard and unrewarding as in Greece 3/4 of Greece is either baren Mountain on which nothing will grow but a little Timber or spare in Stony Hills good chiefly for grazing goats and sheep to the Greek farmer scratching out a living for himself on whatever grav soil he can get land fertile land in the level valleys and river deltas is the most enviable of [Music] possessions but the river deltas of Greece built out into the sea by silt from the hills are not always fertile as anyone in an could tell you anel is a small village on the Delta of the sparus river in Central Greece it is much like any other Greek Village the one thing to note about an is its unpromising situation it stands on a flat plane the river has built up between the Sea and the famed pass of thermop where the ancient Greeks suffered one of the classic defeats of history since it emerged from the shallow sea this plane has been an utterly Barren Wasteland its soil filled with Alkali salt there are a quarter of a million Acres of such Wasteland in Greece considered like the plane around anth to be absolutely worthless at least it was considered so but then one day in 1949 a couple of American Jeeps came jolting over the plane first day driving to an I didn't know what we were going to find Marshall Plan had sent me out from Athens because I'm familiar with the problems alkal land presents I wanted to look the place over and take some samples of the soil see if anything could be done to wash out all that salt make it fit for farming it was worth a try there were 10,000 acres of alkali land right there around anth if it could only be reclaimed [Music] I took my soil samples back to the laboratory at the University of Athens for detailed examination and consultation with experts from the Greek Ministry of [Music] Agriculture on the strength of what the test showed we decided to head right back for anth not many months left before planting time and if we were going to reclaim all that land we'd have to do it in a [Music] hurry I got the president of the village to call the people together the ones who own the land [Music] I told him my name was Walter packet out in California and my own country I'd lick the same problem by growing rice I explained to them how the flooding of the land necessary for Rice crops washes The Alkali out of the surface soil and deep drainage removes the salty groundwater the men were pretty skeptical at first and why not who was I somebody they had never heard of trying to tell them that all this land everybody around there knew was no good could be made to grow crops for all they knew I was just some amateur farmer from the United States before long though we began to understand each other better finally for a small share of whatever crops there might be 40 Farmers offered to rent their land was all we needed for a start we all knew that if we were going to get any crops in that year we were going to have to move fast irrigation and drainage ditches had to be dug and the land leveled and boarded was already in the middle of January equipment was supplied and all work financed by the Greek Ministry of Agriculture through the allocation of Marshall Plan funds at one time 500 villagers were at work on the project it was the toughest kind of digging ground dry and hard on the surface and under the surface salt water but they dug miles of ditch and channel they dug miles of it to drain the salty water off and they dug more miles to bring in fresh from the river to wash the soil [Music] by the time this fresh water had soaked into the soil it was Fuller of salt than the ocean so they pumped it out shot it down to the Sea 3 miles away [Music] finally just in time the canals and rice Bates were done and ready for flooding the best variety of rice in Italy was imported and planting began a little late but still Inta [Music] the next six weeks the farmers just waited to see they were pretty doubtful if anything would grow but they were willing to be [Music] shown it grew all right as time went on most of the land was covered with a blanket of waving grain for weeks while the rice grew bigger and bigger the fresh water lay in the patties soaking into the soil [Music] time came to draw off the water and dry the land for Harvest you could tell from the salt crusted along the drainage canals how much good the soaking had done the crop they got that first season was a good one not the best but big enough at the going high prices for rice to cover all the costs of reclamation and production and still pay a good rent nowadays when I go back to anth the farmers are all interested and enthusiastic we've increased the area planted to Rice 10 times over since that first year a lot of others have rented land on their own and got a good crop too it's been the same with all but one of four similar demonstration plantings we made in various parts of Greece that one showed better results the second year [Music] the way things look Reese May soon be growing so much rice she won't have to import a pound of it that will save a lot of Foreign Exchange she needs so badly I always enjoy getting back to an I especially like being there at Harvest Time that's a nice time of the year in an crops are in and everybody's feeling [Music] good it's Pleasant to be reminded that stories sometimes turn out well in real life too [Music] [Music] and is not a town where there is much change from year to year but the last time I was there I found something new something that sort of pleased me they' named a street after me [Music]