19S Transactions op the 



water, with a fall of six inches to the mile, and is capable of irrigating 

 one million two hundred thousand acres. This canal alone will carry 

 more water than runs in the lower San Joaquin River in most of the 

 season. It irrigates what in Europe w T ould be an empire. It will secure 

 at least two good crops a year on all that vast extent of territory. It 

 makes what were barren parched plains, more forbidding than the most 

 desolate spot in the San Joaquin Valley, gardens clothed in perpetual 

 verdure; a land where seed time and harvest follow without intermis- 

 sion; where the Summer produces sugar cane, cotton, rice, and indigo, 

 and the Winter wheat, barley, and Indian corn. 



The great canal of the Ticino irrigates the magnificent plains of 

 Lombardy. It was constructed in the twelfth century, and for six hun- 

 dred and fifty years has borne down its great course over one thousand 

 eight hundred cubic feet of water per second. 



"This great mass of water has been spread over the surface of the 

 country through a thousand channels, stimulating the productiveness of 

 the soil to such an extent as to make the country through which it passes 

 one of the richest and most densely populated in the world. When 

 the amount of social and national benefit through long periods of varied 

 fortune is recalled to mind, one feels a sympathy in the pride with which 

 it is regarded by the descendants of its original constructors." 



Its massive stone aqueducts, solid masonry locks, granite enbankments, 

 waste ways made entirely of stone, its bed in places paved with rock, 

 make it a marvel of solidity. For six and a half centuries this has been 

 the great artery to the agricultural life of Lombardy, and to-day is one 

 of the chief sources of the prosperity of her people. 



AMOUNT OF WATER NECESSARY TO BE USED FOR IRRIGATION. 



For ordinary crops the amount of water necessary for irrigation is 

 from four to six inches for one crop, although twice and three times 

 that quantity is sometimes used. 



This means that amount is distributed through the season over the 

 surface of the land, much depending on the character of the soil, kind 

 of crop, and cultivation. In most parts of Italy the quantity of water 

 is double that, though with some crops and in some seasons not half of 

 it is required. 



In this State, for crops of wheat and barley sown, say in October or 

 November, or even in December, one or two irrigations in the Spring 

 would be ample, and would secure an enormous yield. 



For the second crop, whether of corn, potatoes, vegetables, cotton, or 

 pasture, more water in this climate would be required. 



PRICE OF WATER. 



In India the price of water for rice culture is about three dollars per 

 acre; both there and in Italy the price varying in different districts and 

 for different grains. For some grains the price is as low as fifty cents 

 per acre, while for other districts and for other crops, it is as high as 

 seven dollars per acre per annum. This is for the year, and always 

 includes two crops. From one dollar to three dollars per annum seems 

 to be the average price paid in these countries. 



