1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



187 



Vercelli. — The new canal, now making, for tak- 

 ing water from the Dora Bahia, and conducting it 

 to the rice grounds of V^erceili, is done by tiie king, 

 and will cost three millions ; the water is sold to 

 communities. The other I crossed near the Dora, 

 at the same time, was made long ago, and belongs 

 10 the Marquis de Bour^. 



Milanese. — Buffalora. — After crossing the 

 Tesino, in several branches, and entering the Mi- 

 lanese, we find a great system of waienng mea- 

 dows to BuH'alora, where that magnificent canal, 

 the Navil io Grande is 20 yards broad, and though 

 navigable, was originally made for irrigation alone. 



St. Pietro Olmo. — Hence, lor sonie distance, 

 there is no watering ; but then there is something 

 in our Berkshire method ; the lands are archeil up, 

 and just in the centre, on their crown, are the car- 

 rier trenches for conducting the water, and on each 

 side a row of low sallows ; some of these lands are 

 two rods broad, and two teet higher in the ridge 

 than in the furrow ; the land firm and the herbage 

 good : wherever the meadows seem good, there is 

 abundance ol' chicorium intybus, plaiitago lanceo- 

 lata, and trifuliiim pratense. 



Milan. — As the irrigation of Milanese is per- 

 haps the greatest exertion of the kind that ever 

 was in the world, and certainly the first that was 

 undertaken in Europe, after the decline of the Ro- 

 man empire, it merits every attention that a lurin- 

 ing traveller can give ; for it will be Ibund, by ve- 

 ry briefly recurring to records, which have been 

 searched, that great exertions (perhaps as great 

 as ever known) were made in this country, at a 

 period when all the north of Europe was in a state 

 of barbarism. In the year 1037, mention is made 

 of the canal Vecchiabbia. In 1067, watered mea- 

 dows were common, called pratoroco by Landol- 

 fo.* In 1077, there are notes of many streams 

 used. In 1138, the monks ol' Chiarevalle bought 

 of Giovanni Villano some commons, woods, and 

 meadows for 81 liv. under the contract, (a parch- 

 ment yet remaining,) "«f 7nonasterium possit ex 

 Vectabia trahere lectinnubi ipsum monasterium vol- 

 uerit el sifaerit opus liceatfacere eidem monasterio 

 Jbssata super terrain ipsius Johannis ab una parte 

 vi(z et ab alia**** ^'c. possit firmare et habere clu- 

 sam in prato ipsius Johannis, .^'c." There is a 

 similar contract of the following year, ami various 

 others, until the beginningofthe 13ih century; from 

 which, and others, it appears, that the Vecchiab- 

 bia was the entire property of the monastery, and 

 confirmed in 1276 by the diploma of the Emperor 

 Frederick II. The merit of these monks appears 

 to have been great, lor they gamed such a repu- 

 tation for their skill and industry, that they had 

 many applications lor assistance in directing works 

 similar to their own upon uncultivated lands; and 

 the imperial Chancellor Rinaldo, in the time ot the 

 Emperor Frederick I. being appointed arch-bishop 

 of Colone, found the possessions of his fee in su(-h 

 a deplorable state, that he applied for, and lound 

 the same assistance, as reported by Cesarior Eis- 

 terbacense. Their greatest exertions were in irri- 

 gation, which was so well known, that they sold 

 their superfluous water, transferring the use and 

 property of same by the hour, day, and week. In 

 two eenturies they came to be possessed of 60,000 

 pertiche, mostly watered : there is reason to believe 

 that the practice, in the 13th century, did not ma- 



* Giulini, tom.iv. p. 122, 224, 225. 



terially differ from the present modes ; because, in 

 the papers of the archives of the abbey of thai pe- 

 riod, mention is made ot chiuse, incastri, hochilli, 

 soratio,* and other works, to distribute the water, 

 and regulate the irrigation.! In 1164, the Empe- 

 ror Frederick gave various rights, in certain rivers, 

 to the people of Pavia, lor the purposes of irriga- 

 tion.! In 1177, the people of Milan enlarged and 

 continued the Navillio Grande, from Abbiate 

 Grasso to Milan, being 14 miles ; it was brought 

 li-om the Tesino, near the Lago Maggiore, to Ab- 

 biate Grasso, 20 miles, by the peo'ple of Pavia, 

 long belbre the date of any records now known to 

 remain. § In 1271, it was made navigable. It is 

 thirty-two Italian miles long, and twenty-five brac- 

 chi wide, or forty-nine English feet.|| 



The second great work, was the canal called 

 Muzza, which takes the waters of the Adda, at 

 Cassano, and carries them to Marignano, there 

 dividing and watering much ol the Lodizan. It 

 was executed in 1220, IT and done in so admirable 

 a style, that Padre Frisi, in the preface to Modo 

 di regolare ifiumi, ^'c. says, — "i7 meccamsmo d^ir- 

 rigar le campagne e stato ridotto alVultimo grado 

 di maestria e di persezione nel canale di Muz- 

 zay** And Padre Antonio Lecchi, another great 

 engineer and mathematician, remarks, — '■'■De'nos-^ 

 tri tre celebri canali di Muzza, e dc'dm navigli 

 qual altra memoria ci rimane ora, se non se quella 

 del tempo della lore costruzione, e d^altrepoche no- 

 tizie, niente concernenti ai maraviglioso artijizio 

 della loro condotta'^'''\'\ 



In 1305, tlie canal of Treviglio was made, which 

 takes the water from the Bieinbo, and carries it, 

 Ibr several miles, about twenty-five feet wide, and 

 about three deep ; it irrigates the territory of Tri- 

 viglio and the Ghiara d'Adda. And, within four 

 or five miles, there are five canals, taken from the 

 Adda and Brembo, all ol'great antitjuity. In 1460, 

 the canal de Martesano was begun, under Duke 

 Francis Sibrza I. ; it was twenty-four miles long, 

 and eighteen braccia (thirty-five English i'eet,) 

 wide ; since lengtheneil seven or eight miles more. 

 It takes the waters of the Adda, "a little before 

 Trezzo, by means of a powerlLil wear, (chiuse) 

 (bunded upon the livins rock ; it is then supported 

 for five miles by a solid wall of stone, Ibriy brac- 

 cia (eighty feet,) above the bottom of the Adda, 

 and parallel with it. At Gorgonzola, it passes 

 over the torrent Molgora, by a bridge ol three 

 stone arches. At Carsenzogo, it is crossed by the 

 river Lanibro, which enters and quits the canal 

 with all its floods. And, in order to prevent the 

 surplus of water, vvhii-h this circumstance occa- 

 sions, from breaking the hanks of the canal, or 

 overflowing them, there are nineteen scaricatori 

 in the canal, above, below, and facing the junc- 



* Chiuse, are sluices ; incastri, are water gates, that 

 are moved perpendicularly ; bochilli, openings in the 

 banks to distribute water; soratot, discharges •lor car- 

 rying otf superfluous water; the same as scaricatari. 



t Memorie Stonca ed Kconomica full' Inigazone de 

 Praii. Don. .Mng. Fumugalh Jltiidi Milano, torn. ii. p. 

 215. 



X Giulini, torn. vi. p. 330. 



§ Nuova Raccolta d'Autoriche trattano de tmoio dell* 

 Acque. Parma. 1768. 4to. Tom. vii. P. Prisi. p. 97. 



II Ibid, p. 98. 



H Verri, Storia di M. t. i. p. 240. 



** Nuova Raccolta, torn. vii. 



tt Jb. Piano, ^c. de trctanenii, p. 141. 



