1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



195 



of ihem is to be compared to those of Milan. 

 From Coquillo to Brescia, there are many chan- 

 nels, yet the lands are not half watered. 



Brescia to Verona. — The road passes, for some 

 distance, by a very fine canal, yet the quantity of 

 watered lan:i in this route is but inconsiderable. 

 Belbre we arrive at the Lago di Guarda, there 

 are a few meadows never ploughed, that have a 

 good appearance: but none from the lake to Ve- 

 rona. On the whole, these forty nsiles, lor want 

 of more irrigation, are not con)parable to the Mi- | 

 lanese or to Piedmont. This route, so much to stern and tyrannical government. 



Venice. — The same admirable law, that takes 

 place in the Milanese, lor enabling every man to 

 conduct water where he pleases, is found in the 

 Venetian state also, contrary to my information at 

 Padua; but so many forms are necessary, and the 

 person who attempts it must fight his way through 

 so much expensive litigation, that it is a dead let- 

 ter, and nothing done in consequence. 1 was (ar- 

 iher told, that it is a principle of the Venetian code, 

 that not only all rivers, but even springs, and rain 

 itself, belongs to the prince : an idea worthy of this 



the north, gives the traveller an opportunity of 

 seeing a chain of considerable cities, and of ob- 

 serving the effects of one of the most celebrated 

 governments that has existed; but, a better direc- 

 tion for tne, would have been by Cremona and 

 Mantua. 



Verona. — The meadows here are cut thrice, and 

 fed once; r.re never ploughed, if good and well 

 watered. Water for irrigation here, as in all 

 Lombardy, is measured with great care and atten- 

 tion, by what is called the quadrata, which is a 

 square foot, (the Veronese foot is to the English 

 about as twenty are to twelve.) Twelve quadrate 

 are sufficient to water five hundred canf^i of rice- 

 grounds, (about three hundred and eighty English 

 acres,) and the price of such a quantity of water, 

 is commonly about three thousand zecchini (1425Z 

 sterling.) The wheels in this city, for raising wa- 

 ter for irrigating the gardens, are very complete ; 

 they receive the water, as in Spain, into hollow 

 fellies. There is one in the garden of theDaniele 

 monastery, for watering about fourcampi, which 

 are said to yield a revenue of three hundred zec- 

 chini ; which is one hundred zecchini, of 93. 6d. 

 per English acre. The wheel raises the water 

 about twenty-five feet, receiving its motion by the 

 stream ; a low wall crossing the garden, conveys 

 the water in a trench of masonry on its tops; and 

 a walk passing along the centre of the garden, the 

 wall there is open to admit the path; the water 

 sinking in a syphon, and rising on the other side, 

 to the same height, passes again along the wall, 

 in the same manner as canals are carried under 

 roads in Piedmont, &c. The wheel has double 

 fellies, for giving water on both sides into troughs, 

 which unite in the same receiver, and the washers 

 for giving the motion are placed between the i'e\- 

 lies. The whole apparatus, complete, cost three 

 hundred zecchini. 



To Vlcenza. — There are in this tract of country, 

 some perennial meadows watered, quite upon a 

 level, which have a very good aspect ; the exis- 

 tence of such should make us question the pro- 

 priety of the Lodizan system of ploughing, where 

 water is so regularly at command. 



Padua. — The country, from Vicenza to this city, 

 is not watered, like many other districts of Lom- 

 bardy. The practice is very well known ; and 

 there are rice-grounds about Padua, but not nearly 

 the use made of water which is found in the Mi- 

 lanese; yet the rivers in the Venetian state belong 

 to the prince, as well as in other parts of Italy, and 

 water is consequently to be bought: but there is 

 not the same right to conduct it at will, and con- 

 sequently the water itself might almost as well 

 not exist. 



To Venice. — In this tract 1 saw no irrigation, 

 though the whole is very low, and quite level. 



Ecclesiastical state. — Bologna. — I saw 

 no watered lands. 



TuscAKY. — I saw no irrigation in Tuscany ; 

 and, from the intelligence I received, have reason 

 to believe, that the quantity is not considerable ; 

 some meadows, however, are watered after mow- 

 ing. The best meadows I heard of, are about 

 Poggio, Caiana, Villa Sovrana, ten miles from 

 Florence. 



DuTCHY OF MoDENA.— The quantity of irri- 

 gated land in the Modenese, is but small ; it does 

 not amount to more than six biolche in eighty, nor 

 have they more than fifteen perpetual water-mills 

 in the whole territor}'. From Modenato Reggio, 

 there is a sprinkling of these meadows, the canals 

 for which, taken from the Lecchia, are not large ; 

 all, whether watered or not, are manuring, vvith 

 black well rotted compost, and have a very neat 

 countenance. 



DuTCHY OF Parma.— The country from Reg- 

 gio to Parma, is not without watering, but the 

 quantity is inconsiderable ; there is, in this line of 

 country, a great inferiority to that from Modena 

 to Reggio; not the same neatness nor attention, 

 in any respect; there are mole-casts in the mea- 

 dows, a thing unseen belbre ; and though there are 

 much cattle and sheep, yet the features of the hus- 

 bandry are worse. From Parma to Firenzuola, 

 not an hundredth part of the country irrigated, yet 

 there is a good deal of grass, and in some places 

 in large pieces. 



Piedmont.— /^avese, 4-c.— For some miles in 

 the Sardinian territories, there are a good many 

 meadows, but very Cew watered. I passed two 

 small channels of irrigation, but the quantity was 

 inconsiderable. If a map of these countries be ex- 

 amined, there is the appearance of many rivers 

 descending from the Appenines, and falling into 

 the Po, but the use made of them is small. ° It is 

 remarkable, that all the way by Tortona, Alexan- 

 dria, &c. to Turin, the quantity of irrigation, till 

 almost close to the last mentioned city, fs quite in- 

 considerable, not one acre, perhaps, in a thousand. 

 What an idea can be framed of Piedmont, by those 

 who pass through it from Mont Cenis, and quit it 

 for Milan or Tortona, without seeing it from Tu- 

 rin to Coni? 



Savoy. — In the mountains of the Alps, by 

 Lanesburg, &c. they mow their watered meadows 

 once only, but in the plain twice. 



From this detail of the irrigation of Lombardy, 

 it must be apparent, that, for want of laws similar 

 to those which take place fully in Piedmont, and 

 the Milanese, and partially in the republic of Ve- 

 nice, no such exertions are ever likely to be made 

 in a free country. We can in England form no 

 navigation, or road, or make any trespass or pri- 

 vate property, without the horribly expensive form 



