THE FA 



RS' REGISTER. 



Vol. VII. 



APRIL 30, 1839. 



No. 4. 



EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



IRRIGATION OF LOMBARDY. 



From Arthur Young's Notes on the Agriculture of Lombardy. 

 C Concluded from page 188.^ 



The same law that has been so efl'ectual in wa- 

 tering Piedmont, operates here also, and has done 

 even greater things. He who discovers a spring, 

 conducts it where he pleases, paying a fixed com- 

 pensation* lor cutting through the properties of 

 others. All rivers belong, as in Piedmont, to the 

 sovereign, who sells tixe waters to speculators for 

 this most beneficial purpose of irrigation. In tjie 

 distribution of it, by sale, they do not measure by 

 the hour, as in Piedmont, but by the ounce ; 12 

 oz. are a braccio, or 22 inches: an ounce ol water 

 is a stream that runs one braccio long and one 

 ounce deep ; and the farther the water has run, 

 the higher is the price, as being more charged 

 with manure. 



As an example of the beneficial influence of this 

 law, I was shown, between Milan and Pavia, a 

 spring that was discovered two miles irom the 

 lands of the discoverer, the properties of many 

 persons lying between him and the spring. He 

 first bought the property of the person in whose 

 land it was situated, which was easily done, as it 

 was too low to be there of any use ; then he con- 

 ducted it by a trench at pleasure the two miles, 

 paying the fixed price lor cutting through his 

 neighbors' lands; and, having gained it upon his 

 own, presently changed poor hungry arable grav- 

 el into a very fine watered meadow. 



Near Milan, a watered meadow sells at 800 llv. 

 the pertica, (£32. 15s. the English acre;) and 

 the rent of such is about 30 liv. (£1. 5s. the Eng- 

 lish acre.) Thismustnot,however,be classed high; 

 for there are lands that rise to 4000 liv. ( £ 163 the 

 English acre.) In landatSOOZitJ. orlOOO/Zu. water 

 often makes half of the value ; that is, the rent to 

 the owner of the land will be 15 liv. to 20 liv.; and 

 as much to some other person tor the water. 



In viewing a great farm, six or seven miles from 

 Milan, in the road to Pavia, I found that all the 

 watered meadow was mown four times ; and that 

 what was watered in winter, prati di mercila, five 

 times. Such is the value of water here, that this 

 farm, which, watered, is rented at 20 liv. the perti- 

 ca, would not let at more than 6 liv. without wa- 

 ter, the soil being gravel. The irrigation of the 

 mercita begins in October, and lasts till March, 

 when it is regulated like all other meadows. All 

 in general begin in April, and last till Septem- 

 ber ; and if there be no rain, once in seven to fi!- 

 teen days. An ounce of water, running continu- 

 ally from the 24lh of March to the 8th of Septem- 

 ber, is worth, and will sell for 1000 liv. When 



* These laws, relative to the conduct of irrigation, 

 are as old as the republic of Milan; first compiled into 

 a collection of statutes and customs in 1216, (Verri, p. 

 239.) They were revised and collected, by order of 

 Charles V, and are in full force to this day. Consti- 

 tutiones Dondnii Mediolanensis Decretis et Senalus 

 Consultis. Gab. Verri. Folio, 1717. De aquis et 

 fluminibus, p. 16S. 

 Vol. VII-2.5 



arable crops want water, it is always given. 



Milan to Mozzata. — Every considerable spring 

 that is found, becomes the origin of a new canal. 

 They clear out the head for a basin, and sink 

 casks, by way of tunnels, for the water to rise 

 freely, and without impediment Irom mud or 

 weeds. There are usually three, four, or five of 

 these tunnels, at the bottom of a basin of twenty 

 or thirty yards. 



Milan to Lodi. — Of all the exertions that I have 

 any where seen in irrigation, they are here by far 

 the greatest. The canals are not only more nu- 

 merous, more incessant, and without interruption, 

 but are conducted with the most attention, skill, 

 and expense. There is, for most ol the way, one 

 canal on each side of the road, and sometimes two. 

 Cross on^s are thrown over these, on arches, and 

 pass in trunks of brick or stone under the road. A 

 very considerable one, after passing for several 

 miles by the side of the highway, sinks under it, 

 and also under two other canals, carried in stone 

 troughs eight feet wide ; and at the same place 

 under a smaller, that is conducted in wood. The 

 variety of directions in which the water is carried, 

 the ease with which it flows in contrary directions, 

 the obstacles which are overcome, are objects of 

 admiration. The expense thus employed, in the 

 twenty miles from Milan to Lodi, is immense. 

 There is but little rice, and some arable, which 

 does not seem under the best management; but 

 the grass and clover rich and luxuriant : and there 

 are some great herds of cows, to which all this 

 country ought to be applied, i cannot but esteem 

 the twenty miles as afibrding one of the most cu- 

 rious and valuable prospects in the power of a far- 

 mer to view ; we have some undertakings in Eng- 

 land that are meritorious ; but they sink to nothing 

 in comparison with these great and truly noble 

 works. It is one of the rides which I wish those 

 to take, who think that every thing is to be seen 

 in England. 



jLodi. — Examining some watered meadows in 

 high estimation, I found the following plants most 

 predominant, and in the order in which I note 

 them : — 1, Ranunculus repens j 2, 7'rifolium pra- 

 tense j 3, Chicorium intybus j 4, Plantago lance- 

 olata J 5, JlchilUa millefolium ;* and about one 

 fifth of the whole herbage at bottom seems what 

 are properly called grasses. These rich meadows 

 about Lodi are all intersected by ditches, without 

 hedges, but a double row of pollard poplars ; all on 

 a dead level, and no drains to be seen. They are 

 now (October,) cutting the grass and weeds in the 

 ditches, to cart home for making dung. The mea 

 dows are commonly cut thrice ; but the best lour 



* There appeared but few signs of ray-grass, yet it 

 certainly abounds in some of their fields ; opinions in 

 Lombardy dilFer concerning it; Sig. Scannagatta prai- 

 ses it highly, (Atti di Milano, torn, ii p. 114;) but one 

 of the best writers in their language, Sig. Lavezari, 

 (torn. i. p. 82.) wonders rather at the commendations 

 given of it in other countries : he mistakes the French 

 name, it is not sainfoin ; the lojexsa of Lombardy, and 

 the ray-grass of England, is the lolinm perenne ; the 

 French sainfoin is the hedysamm onobrachis. 



