444 EXTENT OF SOIL IREIGATED IjST EUEOPE. 



Paris," * I^iel states the quantity of land irrigated in tlie for- 

 mer kingdom of Sardinia, including Savoy, in 1856, at 240,000 

 hectares, or not much less than 600,000 acres. This is about four- 

 thirteenths of the cultivable soil of the kingdom. According to 

 the same author, the irrigated lands in France did not exceed 

 100,000 hectares, or 247,000 acres, while those in Lombardy 

 amounted to 450,000 hectares, more than 1,100,000 acres.f In 

 these three states alone, then, there were more than three thou 

 sand square miles of artificially watered land, and if we add the 

 irrigated soils of the rest of Italy, :j: of the Mediterranean islands, 

 of the Spanish peninsula, of Turkey in Europe and in Asia 

 Minor, of Syria, of Egypt and the remainder of Northern Africa, 

 we shall, see that irrigation increases the evaporable surface of the- 

 Mediterranean basin by a quantity bearing no inconsiderable pro- 

 portion to the area naturally covered by water within it. 



Arrangements are concluded, and new plans proposed, for an 

 immense increase of the lands fertihzed by irrigation in France 

 and in Belgiiun, as well as in Spain and Italy, and there is every 

 reason to believe that the artificially watered soil of the latter 

 country will be doubled, that of France quadrupled, before the 

 end of this century. There can be no doubt that by these oper- 

 ations man is exercising a powerful influence on the soil, on 

 vegetable and animal life, and on climate, and hence that in this, 

 as in many other fields of industry, he is truly a geographical 

 agency. § 



* Memorie sui progetii per I'estensione deW Irrigazione, etc., 11 PoUtecnico, for 

 January, 1863, p. 6. 



f NiEL, L' Agriculture des Mats Sardes, p. 232. This estimate, it will be 

 observed, is 275,000 acres less than that of Lombardini. 



X In 1865 the total quantity of irrigated lands in the kingdom of Italy was 

 estimated at 1,357,677 hectares, or 2,000,000 acres, of which one-half is supplied 

 with water by artificial canals. The Canal Cavour adds 250,000 acres to the 

 above amount. The extent of artificially watered ground in Italy is conse- 

 quently equal to the entire area of the States of Delaware and Rhode Island. — 

 See the ofiicial report, SuUe Bonificazioni, Risaie, ed Irrigazioni, 1865, p. 269. 



§ It belongs rather to agriculture than to geography to discuss the quality 

 of the crops obtained by irrigation, or the permanent effects produced by it 

 on the productiveness of the soil. There is no doubt, however, that all crops 

 which can be raised without watering are superior in flavor and in nutritive- 



