I 



EDITORIAL. 109 



tioii. With an active progTamme committee attention can be focused 

 upon the extent and limitations of knowledge relating- to different 

 horticultural problems, and investigation thus stinudated in the direc- 

 tion where it is most needed. 



Ehvood Mead, chief of the irrigation investigations of this Office, 

 returned in September from Europe, where he spent the sununer in 

 stud^'ing irrigation. Germany, Switzerland, Ital^-, and France were 

 visited, but the greater part of his time was spent in Italy investigating 

 the laws and practice of that country. Some of his observations are 

 of special interest as showing the conditions under which irrigation 

 has been developed and is managed in that humitl country, and the 

 manner in which some of its problems have been disposed of. 



The reason for pa3dng special attention to the valley of the Po was 

 the similarity of its conditions to those of man}^ sections in the eastern 

 part of the United States. The rainfall of this part of Italy is about 

 ■iO inches a year, which is above that of (Jmaha, Kansas City, or 

 Cincinnati. Farmers do not irrigate because they have to, but 

 because it pays. In the greater part of the countr}- the staple crops 

 are the same as those of the northern part of the United States, corn, 

 wheat, and clover being the leading products. The fields in which 

 these are grown are also frequenth^ planted with mulberry trees, 

 wdiich furnish food for the silkworms. Irrigation increases the yield 

 of nndberry leaves about one-third. It enables a crop of corn to be 

 grown after the wheat crop has been harvested, and doid)les the yield 

 of alfalfa and clover. 



Rice and " marcite,'"' two important crops, could not be grown without 

 the aid of irrigation, ard these can not be grown everywhere in the 

 irrigated districts. The most profitable crop is marcite. The niarcite 

 fields are water meadows which are kept green the year through by 

 I'unning water over the land for a short time every day. In winter 

 the water for this kind of irrigation comes principally from springs and 

 is Avarm enough to keep the grass growing in the coldest weather. 

 The grass is cut when it reaches a height of about 15 inches. It is 

 chiefl}^ used for feeding dair}^ cattle; and in the vicinity of large cities 

 like Milan, where there is a local demand for milk and butter, the 

 annual value of this crop is surprising, the product from some of the 

 fields last year having sold for $300 an acre. 



Land and water rights in the best marcite districts surpass in price 

 the fruit lands of southern California, some of the farms near Milan 

 being held at over $3,000 an acre, and rights in the canal selling for 

 over $1,200 an acre. These are maximum prices and are far higher 

 than the prices for lands and water rights where only wheat and corn 

 can be grown. The minimum prices for lands with rights in the 

 ditches in the districts recentl}^ brought under irrigation range from 

 to $180 an acre. Unirrigated land in the same neighborhood sells 



