VOL. VII.

APRIL 30, 1839.

No. 4.

EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.

IRRIGATION OF LOMBARDY.

From Arthur Young's Notes on the Agriculture of Lombardy.

(Concluded from page 188.)

The same law that has been so effectual in watering Piedmont, operates here also, and has done even greater things. He who discovers a spring, conducts it where he pleases, paying a fixed compensation* for cutting through the properties of others. All rivers belong, as in Piedmont, to the sovereign, who sells the waters to speculators for this most beneficial purpose of irrigation. In the distribution of it, by sale, they do not measure by the hour, as in Piedmont, but by the ounce; 12 oz. are a braccio, or 22 inches: an ounce of water is a stream that runs one braccio long and one ounce deep; and the farther the water has run, the higher is the price, as being more charged with manure.

arable crops want water, it is always given.

Milan to Mozzata.-Every considerable spring that is found, becomes the origin of a new canal. They clear out the head for a basin, and sink casks, by way of tunnels, for the water to rise freely, and without impediment from mud or weeds. There are usually three, four, or five of these tunnels, at the bottom of a basin of twenty or thirty yards.

Milan to Lodi.-Of all the exertions that I have any where seen in irrigation, they are here by far the greatest. The canals are not only more numerous, more incessant, and without interruption, but are conducted with the most attention, skill, and expense. There is, for most of the way, one canal on each side of the road, and sometimes two. Cross ones are thrown over these, on arches, and pass in trunks of brick or stone under the road. A very considerable one, after passing for several miles by the side of the highway, sinks under it, and also under two other canals, carried in stone troughs eight feet wide; and at the same place under a smaller, that is conducted in wood. The variety of directions in which the water is carried, the ease with which it flows in contrary directions. the obstacles which are overcome, are objects of admiration. The expense thus employed, in the twenty miles from Milan to Lodi, is immense. There is but little rice, and some arable, which does not seem under the best management; but the grass and clover rich and luxuriant: and there are some great herds of cows, to which all this country ought to be applied. I cannot but esteem Near Milan, a watered meadow sells at 800 liv. the twenty miles as affording one of the most cuthe pertica, (£32. 15s. the English acre;) and rious and valuable prospects in the power of a farthe rent of such is about 30 liv. (£1. 58. the Eng-mer to view; we have some undertakings in Eng. lish acre.) This must not, however, be classed high; for there are lands that rise to 4000 liv. ( £ 163 the English acre.) In land at 800 liv. or 1000 liv. water often makes half of the value; that is, the rent to the owner of the land will be 15 liv. to 20 liv.; and as much to some other person for the water.

As an example of the beneficial influence of this law, I was shown, between Milan and Pavia, a spring that was discovered two miles from the lands of the discoverer, the properties of many persons lying between him and the spring. He first bought the property of the person in whose land it was situated, which was easily done, as it was too low to be there of any use; then he conducted it by a trench at pleasure the two miles, paying the fixed price for cutting through his neighbors' lands; and, having gained it upon his own, presently changed poor hungry arable gravel into a very fine watered meadow.

land that are meritorious; but they sink to nothing in comparison with these great and truly noble works. It is one of the rides which I wish those to take, who think that every thing is to be seen in England.

In viewing a great farm, six or seven miles from high estimation, I found the following plants most Lodi.-Examining some watered meadows in Milan, in the road to Pavia, I found that all the predominant, and in the order in which I note watered meadow was mown four times; and that them:-1, Ranunculus repens; 2, Trifolium prawhat was watered in winter, prati di mercita, five tense; 3, Chicorium intybus; 4, Plantago lancetimes. Such is the value of water here, that this olata; 5, Achillea millefolium;* and about one farm, which, watered, is rented at 20 liv. the perti-fifth of the whole herbage at bottom seems what ca, would not let at more than 6 liv. without water, the soil being gravel. The irrigation of the about Lodi are all intersected by ditches, without are properly called grasses. These rich meadows mercita begins in October, and lasts till March, hedges, but a double row of pollard poplars; all on when it is regulated like all other meadows. All a dead level, and no drains to be seen. They are in general begin in April, and last till Septem- now (October,) cutting the grass and weeds in the ber; and if there be no rain, once in seven to fil- ditches, to cart home for making dung. The mea teen days. An ounce of water, running continu-dows are commonly cut thrice; but the best four ally from the 24th of March to the 8th of September, is worth, and will sell for 1000 liv. When

These laws, relative to the conduct of irrigation, are as old as the republic of Milan; first compiled into a collection of statutes and customs in 1216, (Verri, p. 239.) They were revised and collected, by order of Charles V, and are in full force to this day. Constitutiones Dominii Mediolanensis Decretis et Senatus Consultis. Gab. Verri. Folio, 1747. De aquis et Juminibus, p. 16S.

VOL. VII-25

There appeared but few signs of ray-grass, yet it certainly abounds in some of their fields: opinions in Lombardy differ concerning it; Sig. Scannagatta praises it highly, (Atti di Milano, tom. ii p. 114;) but one of the best writers in their language, Sig. Lavezari, (tom. i. p. 82.) wonders rather at the commendations given of it in other countries: he mistakes the French name, it is not sainfoin; the lojessa of Lombardy, and the ray-grass of England, is the lolium perenne; the French sainfoin is the hedysarum onobrachis,

times. The produce of hay per pertica, 6 fassi, | irrigation, that some evils are observed to attend of 100 lb. of 28 oz. at the three cuts. Price of the the practice, for want of a better foresight and first, 8 liv. per fass; of the second, 5 liv.; of the more attention; particularly from the gradual enthird, 4 liv. They water immediately after clear-largement of the carrier canals and ditches; they ing, if there be no rain. Without irrigation, the clean them with so much care, for the sake of obrent of the country in general would be only one-taining the mud, as a manure, that these are every third of what it is at present. In forming these where become too wide for the quantity of water watered meadows, they have very singular cus- they convey. Sig. Bignami has written upon this toms-all are broken up in rotation; flax sown for point very rationally, in his dissertation Sull' abuthe first crop, and their way of laying down is to so di scavare i canali delle roggie ed i fossi nel Loleave a wheat stubble to clothe itself; clover is pro- digiano; where he asserts, that one-tenth part of hibited by lease, from an absurd notion that it ex- their lands is occupied by canals and ditches. The hausts the land; and that it is not so good as what evils are numerous; it is not only a considerable the nature of the ground gives; but on worse land, loss of land, but it is an equal loss of water, for the other side of the Adda, they sow clover. when an oncia of a given run of water is purchased, Lodi to Codogno.-All this country the same as there is a great difference between its first filling about Lodi ; a dead level, cut into bits of from three a great or a small channel, as in proportion to the to ten acres, by ditches, without hedges, and size will be the quantity of useless fluid. The atplanted with double rows of poplars and willows, mosphere is also proportionably contaminated; for all young, for they are cut as soon as the size is this great breadth, either of stagnant water, when that of a thin man: here and there one is left to irrigation is not actually going on, or, what is run up to timber. I remarked, in the meadows worse, of mud, in so hot a climate, must be pesfed, that the ranunculus is avoided by the cows tiferous; and to this have been attributed the disas much as possible. I expected, in one meadow, tempers which have frequently made such havoc to find it the acris, but much of it was the repens. among their cattle. Another inconvenience is the All this country is alternately in tillage; ridge greater expense of all erections, bridges, sluices, and furrow every where: no permanent meadow. &c. which are in proportion to the breadth of the After seven miles, the road being natural, shows channels. The remedy is obvious; it is to forbear the soil to be a loamy sand, binding with rains.* all cleansing for the sake of mud; to let all aqua. Codogno.-Thirteen pertiche of watered land tic weeds, and other plants, grow freely on the necessary for a cow; the hay of which is cut banks, edges, and sides of the canals, and to clear thrice and it is fed once; such land sells at 300 them in the middle only. Such a conduct would, liv. free from tax. The whole country is plough-in time, quite choak them up, and enable the fared by turns, being down to clover for the cows mer to keep his canals exactly to their right width. four years. 1. Flax, and then millet; 2, maize; 3, wheat and clover; and rests then for feeding cows; white clover comes, but it is bad for cheese. The reader will note, that this opinion differs from

that near Milan.

Codogno to Crema.-Crossing the Adda, from the Lodizan, there is more arable, and much few

er cows.

Milan to Vaprio.-In this line there are some dairies, but not many. Near the city there is much grass, all cut into patch-work of divisions, and planted so as to seem a wood of willows; after that much tillage: though all is flat, and there are no great exertions in watering. But the road passes by that fine navigable canal de Martesano from Milan, which, at Vaprio is suspended as it were against the hill, twenty feet above the Adda: a noble spectacle.

Before we quit the Milanese, it will be proper to make a general remark on the conduct of their

All these plants covering the spaces which, in canals often cleaned, are bare earth or mud, would be very beneficial towards preventing and decomposing that noxious, and mephitic, and inflammable gas, always issuing from such mud, which is so pestilential to animals, yet so salutiferous to plants; for mud, covered with plants that are ready to feed on its exhalations, is much less mischievous than that which is exposed to the rays of a burning sun. Count Carlo Bettoni, of Brescia, has practised a method which acts on similar principles; namely, that of burying or fixing willows or poplars to the sides of the rivers whose banks he wanted to preserve, with the precaution only of keeping the ends of the branches out of water; he finds that they grow vigorously in this situation, and, by stopping the mud of the current, form a solid bank; this, on a small scale, might certainly be executed: also in the canals of irrigation, as it has been remarked, by the author already quoted, in the Atti di Milano.

VENETIAN STATE.-Vaprio to Bergamo.There is a mixture of watered meadow in this line, but the quantity is not considerable. In some which are old, I found a good sprinkling of trifolium repens, chicorium intybus, and plantago lan ceolata; but also much ranunculus and rubbish. In the plain close to Bergamo, they clean the irrigation-ditches at the end of November, and harrowing them with a faggot, to thicken the water, let it immediately on to their meadows, which is said to enrich them much.

As well watered as this country is, yet in the spring 1779 the season was so dry, that, where the Lambro enters the Po, men and women crossed the Po itself on foot, as if merely a rivulet; the rector of Alberoni himself passed it, and the water reached only to his middle. The damage was great every where, but fatal in the Lodizan, where herds of cows were obliged to be sent out of the country to be pastured: the mischief the greater, as from 1774 to 1779 they had augmented their cows 5000, (Opuscoli Scelti, tom, vi, p. 56.) The climate has, however, in all ages, been subject to great droughts. From May 1158 to May 1159. there fell no rain in Lombardy; wells and springs all dried up. The Emperor passed the Adige, with his To Brescia.-The Venetian state, thus far, is a army, near Verona, without boats; and the Count Pa- considerable falling off from the Milanese, in relatine of Bavaria passed thus the Po, below Ferrara.spect to irrigation; the country is not without caGiulina, tom. vi. p. 175. nals, but neither the number, nor the importance

of them is to be compared to those of Milan. Venice. The same admirable law, that takes From Coquillo to Brescia, there are many chan-place in the Milanese, for enabling every man to nels, yet the lands are not half watered.

conduct water where he pleases, is found in the Brescia to Verona.-The road passes, for some Venetian state also, contrary to my information at distance, by a very fine canal, yet the quantity of Padua; but so many forms are necessary, and the watered land in this route is but inconsiderable. person who attempts it must fight his way through Before we arrive at the Lago di Guarda, there so much expensive litigation, that it is a dead letare a few meadows never ploughed, that have a ter, and nothing done in consequence. I was fargood appearance: but none from the lake to Ve-ther told, that it is a principle of the Venetian code, rona. On the whole, these forty miles, for want of more irrigation, are not comparable to the Milanese or to Piedmont. This route, so much to the north, gives the traveller an opportunity of seeing a chain of considerable cities, and of observing the effects of one of the most celebrated governments that has existed; but a better direction for me, would have been by Cremona and

Mantua.

that not only all rivers, but even springs, and rain itself, belongs to the prince: an idea worthy of this stern and tyrannical government.

ECCLESIASTICAL STATE.-Bologna.-I saw no watered lands.

TUSCANY. I saw no irrigation in Tuscany; and, from the intelligence I received, have reason to believe, that the quantity is not considerable; some meadows, however, are watered after mowing. The best meadows I heard of, are about Poggio, Caiana, Villa Sovrana, ten miles from Florence.

DUTCHY OF MODENA.-The quantity of irrigated land in the Modenese, is but small; it does not amount to more than six biolche in eighty, nor have they more than fifteen perpetual water-milla in the whole territory. From Modena to Reggio, there is a sprinkling of these meadows, the canals for which, taken from the Lecchia, are not large; all, whether watered or not, are manuring, with black well rotted compost, and have a very neat countenance.

Verona.-The meadows here are cut thrice, and fed once; are never ploughed, if good and well watered. Water for irrigation here, as in all Lombardy, is measured with great care and attention, by what is called the quadrata, which is a square foot, (the Veronese foot is to the English about as twenty are to twelve.) Twelve quadrate are sufficient to water five hundred campi of ricegrounds, (about three hundred and eighty English acres,) and the price of such a quantity of water, is commonly about three thousand zecchini (14251 sterling.) The wheels in this city, for raising water for irrigating the gardens, are very complete; they receive the water, as in Spain, into hollow DUTCHY OF PARMA.-The country from Regfellies. There is one in the garden of the Danielegio to Parma, is not without watering, but the monastery, for watering about four campi, which quantity is inconsiderable; there is, in this line of are said to yield a revenue of three hundred zec- country, a great inferiority to that from Modena chini; which is one hundred zecchini, of 9s. 6d. per English acre. The wheel raises the water about twenty-five feet, receiving its motion by the stream; a low wall crossing the garden, conveys the water in a trench of masonry on its tops; and a walk passing along the centre of the garden, the wall there is open to admit the path; the water sinking in a syphon, and rising on the other side, to the same height, passes again along the wall, in the same manner as canals are carried under roads in Piedmont, &c. The wheel has double fellies, for giving water on both sides into troughs, which unite in the same receiver, and the washers for giving the motion are placed between the fellies. The whole apparatus, complete, cost three

hundred zecchini.

to Reggio; not the same neatness nor attention, in any respect; there are mole-casts in the meadows, a thing unseen before; and though there are much cattle and sheep, yet the features of the husbandry are worse. From Parma to Firenzuola, not an hundredth part of the country irrigated, yet there is a good deal of grass, and in some places in large pieces.

PIEDMONT.-Pavese, &c.-For some miles in the Sardinian territories, there are a good many meadows, but very few watered. I passed two small channels of irrigation, but the quantity was inconsiderable. If a map of these countries be examined, there is the appearance of many rivers descending from the Appenines, and falling into the Po, but the use made of them is small. It is To Vicenza.--There are in this tract of country, remarkable, that all the way by Tortona, Alexansome perennial meadows watered, quite upon a dria, &c. to Turin, the quantity of irrigation, till level, which have a very good aspect; the exis-almost close to the last mentioned city, is quite intence of such should make us question the pro- considerable, not one acre, perhaps, in a thousand. priety of the Lodizan system of ploughing, where What an idea can be framed of Piedmont, by those water is so regularly at command. who pass through it from Mont Cenis, and quit it Padua.-The country, from Vicenza to this city, for Milan or Tortona, without seeing it from Tuis not watered, like many other districts of Lom-rin to Coni? bardy. The practice is very well known; and

SAVOY. In the mountains of the Alps, by there are rice-grounds about Padua, but not nearly Lanesburg, &c. they mow their watered meadows the use made of water which is found in the Mi-once only, but in the plain twice. lanese; yet the rivers in the Venetian state belong to the prince, as well as in other parts of Italy, and water is consequently to be bought: but there is not the same right to conduct it at will, and consequently the water itself might almost as well not exist.

To Venice. In this tract I saw no irrigation, though the whole is very low, and quite level.

From this detail of the irrigation of Lombardy, it must be apparent, that, for want of laws similar to those which take place fully in Piedmont, and the Milanese, and partially in the republic of Venice, no such exertions are ever likely to be made in a free country. We can in England form no navigation, or road, or make any trespass or private property, without the horribly expensive form