n 



! 



Extent of Irrigation 73 



orchards are grown for the feeding of silk worms, and these are 

 set along the main and distributing canals, while the space be- 

 tween them is occupied by various kinds of farm crops. 



In Sicily and throughout southern Italy, nearly all fruit cul- 

 ture is carried on by irrigation, the ratio of irrigated to non- 

 irrigated orchards being as 15 to 1, and it is said that 100 10 -year- 

 old lemon trees, when irrigated, have yielded, on the average, 

 15,000 lemons, while similar orchards under similar conditions, 

 but not watered, yield, on the average, but 10,000, or one-third 

 less per annum. In Lombardy, there were under irrigation, in 

 1878, 2,034,000 acres; in Piedmont, 1,329,000 acres; in Venetia, 

 Emilia, and other provinces, enough to make a total of 4,715,000 

 acres. 



In Spain, irrigation is widely practiced, and has been at least 

 since Roman and Moorish times, and the total acreage has been 

 variously estimated at from 700,000 to 6,000,000, the first figure 

 referring to cereals, vegetables and fruits, and the latter to forage 

 plants and grass lands also. In the last edition of the Encyclo- 

 pedia Britannica, the area under irrigation is placed at 2,840,- 

 160 acres. 



In France, irrigation began at an early date, and in recent 

 years new interest has been taken in the subject, so much so that 

 in Consul-General Rathbone's "Report on Canals and Irrigation, 

 1891," it is stated that during the past ten years in the Depart- 

 ments Drome, Alpes Maritimes, Aude and Herault, Vaucluse, 

 Basses-Alpes, Hautes-Alpes, and Loire, 41,460,000 francs were 

 xpended on no less than 13 different canals for waterways and 

 rrigation. 



The Forez Canal, * supplied by the Loire River, and irrigating, 

 it is said, 65,000 acres, was begun in 1863, and the national gov- 

 ernment granted $122,200 for it, loaning the balance needed to the 

 department at 4 per cent. In 1886 there were 23,000 acres served 

 with 115 miles of ditches, at a cost of $9.50 per acre. The water 

 is distributed periodically, through pipes carrying it to points 

 most convenient for a group of farms, where it is delivered to the 



* " Report on Irrigation," to Senate. Ex. Doe. 41, Part 1, 1892. 



