658 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION M. 
the most profitable in regard to the different markets, and—where the land is 
not very permeable—it is also necessary to prepare drainage ditches in order to 
get rid of the surplus water that otherwise might damage the vegetation or pro- 
duce an excess of parasitic plants. All this requires experience, time, and 
capital, and thus the Administration of the irrigating canal is not in a con- 
dition to sell all its water for many years. 
In the best conditions it takes from twenty to thirty years—and sometimes 
even more—to dispose of all the water of a large canal. 
For instance, the ‘ Marzano’ canal, which crosses the province of Cremona, 
where irrigation has been adopted since the Middle Ages, and all the distribut- 
ing ditches were already made when the main canal was built—in fact, its 
function is that of increasing the flow of the older irrigation canals—needed 
fully thirty years before all its cubic metres per second of water were dis- 
posed of, although the conditions were most favourable. The ‘ Villoresi,’ also 
in a region where irrigation is pretty well developed, after forty years has not 
yet disposed of all its water, and the financial conditions of its administration 
are far from being prosperous. 
The State’s Help.—This is the reason why the State considers it is its duty to 
help all these undertakings. Irrigation puts under cultivation large tracts of 
land of very little value, and in places almost sterile, and part of the population 
that now emigrates abroad can thus find useful employment in the cultivation of 
this land, otherwise nearly useless, and thus increase the national wealth. 
Italy has an increase of population of almost one million souls per year, and 
some 500,000 to 600,000 people are obliged to emigrate, especially to North 
America, or Central Europe, while some 100,000 go to Argentina, and 50,000 to 
other countries round the Mediterranean. 
To moderate this exodus, which is not beneficial to the country, the State 
encourages irrigation by granting a subsidy of three per cent. per year for 
a period of ten years on the capital spent in the construction of the main 
canal and its principal branches, two per cent. per year for the following ten 
years, and one per cent. for another period of ten years. Then the subsidy 
ceases, but in the meantime these subsidies, capitalised at five per cent., repre- 
sent already about thirty-five per cent. of the initial expenditure. But if the canal 
is arranged in such a way as to help to control the flood-water of rivers—as when 
impounding reservoirs are also built—then some subsidy is also granted on the 
capital in the proportion of ten per cent. to thirty per cent. of the expenditure. 
For instance, for the Tirso reservoir and canal, estimated at about 20 million 
francs (800,000/.), the State, besides the usual grants, pays three million francs 
(120,0002.) for the beneficial effect on the régime of the river, and grants a 
yearly subsidy of 150,000 francs (6,000/.) for fifty years for the canal, provided 
that the price of the water for irrigation is not more than 32 francs per hectare 
per year (lls. per acre). After sixty years all the works become the property of 
the State. 
The conclusion, based on Italian experience, is that irrigation is very bene- 
ficial to the individual farmer, when he can get the water by paying 30 to 
50 francs per hectare per year (11s. to 17s. per acre), but not to the Adminis- 
tration of the canal during at least the first thirty years; so the undertaking 
requires a great help from the State during this trying period. But in the 
meantime the State, in the form of taxation, and in the increased welfare of its 
citizens, reaps a large benefit from these works, which is more than sufficient 
to repay amply all the sacrifices made for this purpose. Without irrigation 
Italy would not be able to feed a large portion of its present population; as it 
is, with its wonderful network of irrigating canals, it has become the ‘ garden 
of Europe,’ and is now preparing to extend irrigation in order to be able in 
thirty years’ time to feed a population of fifty to sixty million inhabitants. 
This gives an idea of the satisfactory results accomplished by scientific irriga- 
tion, and explains also the reason why the Italian State encourages and helps 
financially all such undertakings. 
