276 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



In Northern or Upper Lombardy, including all that part 

 north of a line drawn east and west through Milan, or say that 

 part north of the railway to Venice, as far east as the Lake di 

 Garda, the farms are small, and cultivated by a hard-working 

 peasantry. 



In Lower Lombardy, including all of Lombardy south of 

 such a line, occur most of the extensive water meadows. As 

 a general thuig, the agriculture about great cities cannot be 

 regarded as the type of that of the country at large, but that 

 in the vicinity of Milan is an exception, and consists mostly of 

 irrigated meadows, the land kept under tillage being very small 

 in proportion. 



These meadows are very ancient, but still in a very flourish- 

 ing condition, the labor required being simply to regulate the 

 "water supply and keep the surface level, the grass being perma- 

 nent, or that naturally produced by the soil. Those lying south 

 of the city of Milan receive the sewage water and no other 

 manure, and are cut seven or eight, and in many cases nine 

 times in a year. Those in the north have a greater application 

 of manure, and often the irrigation of spring water, and are 

 nearly as productive as those south. 



There is a class of watered fields called marcite, or winter 

 water-meadows. They are watered every six or eight days in 

 summer and are covered by flowing water in winter. The 

 growth on them is so rapid that between November and March 

 two or three crops are cut, and the cattle fed from them are 

 not without fresh green fodder more than thirty or forty days 

 in the year. These meadows usually let, in the neighborhood 

 of Milan, from twenty-five to thirty dollars an acre. The water 

 does not run to waste but is applied in summer to meadows and 

 to all kinds of cultivated plants. 



The system of irrigation in Lombardy has converted what 

 would otherwise have been barren sand and unhealthy marshes, 

 into productive meadows. . It is really irrigation, drainage, 

 navigable canals and motive power for mills so combined that 

 one object or use does not materially aifect or interfere with 

 the otliers. 



Lower Lombardy is peculiarly adapted to irrigation. It con- 

 sists of an immense valley, and the lakes on the top of the hills 



