IRRIGATION IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 319 



carried round the roots of vines. It was from I'a'y 

 that the practice gradually spread throughout the 

 South of France, and from thence to Spain and Britain. 



The conducting of water from rivers and canals, and 

 measuring it out in certain quantities, is consequently 

 an important business of Southern Europe, and also 

 forms a nice part of the science of engineering. In 

 Lombardy, the water of all the rivers belongs to the 

 State. In the Venetian territories, the government not 

 only claims the rivers, but also the smallest springs, 

 and even collections of rain-water. In renting the 

 water of rivers from government, contracts are made 

 to pay so much for the use of the water for an hour or 

 half hour at a time, or for so many days at certain 

 periods of the year. A person desiring to irrigate his 

 lands has the right of making a canal through another 

 estate, which may lie between him and the river, being 

 bound, however, to pay the owner the value of the land, 

 and to avoid bringing the canal close by the mansion, 

 or through the garden of the proprietor. The rent of 

 land having the means of irrigation is one-third higher 

 in Northern Italy than that of lands not so provided. 

 As may be supposed, the utmost care is bestowed in 

 economising the precious fluid. 



But the irrigation practised in warm countries is very 

 different from that of the English watered meadow. 

 The main object of Eastern irrigation seems to be merely 

 to convey sufficient water for the growth and nourish- 

 ment of the crop, the quantity varying with the dif- 

 ferent plants cultivated. Sometimes, as in the case of 

 rice, the ground is saturated for months in succession ; 

 in others, it is merely watered at intervals during the 

 season of greatest drought. The flooding of the soil, 

 and allowing water to remain stagnant upon it, must 

 cause whatever matters the water may contain to be de- 

 posited upon the land, and must also afford protection 

 to the soil from excessive heat ; but these are not the 

 o'ijects to be answered in this country, where a superior 



