November 10, 1905.J 



SCIENCE. 



589 



Cavour Canal in Piedmont. This fine 

 work was constructed by a syndicate of 

 English and French capitalists, to whom 

 the government gave a concession in 1862. 

 Circumstances to which I need not allude 

 ruined this company, and the government, 

 who already had acquired possession of 

 many other irrigation works in Piedmont, 

 took over the wdiole Cavour Canal in 1874, 

 a property valued at above four millions 

 sterling, and ever since the government 

 has administered it. 



The chief interest of this administration 

 centers on the Irrigation Association west 

 of the Sesia,^ an association that owes its 

 existence to the great Count Cavour. It 

 takes over from the government the control 

 of all the irrigation effected by the Cavour 

 and other minor canals within a great tri- 

 angle lying between the left bank of the 

 Po and the right bank of the Sesia. The 

 association purchases from the government 

 from 1,250 to 1,300 cubic feet per second. 

 In addition to this it has the control of all 

 the water belonging to private canals and 

 private rights, which it purchases at a fixed 

 rate. Altogether it distributes about 2,275 

 cubic feet per second, and irrigates there- 

 with about 141,000 acres, of which rice is 

 the most important crop. The association 

 has 14,000 members, and controls 9,600 

 miles of distributary channels. In each 

 parish is a council, or, as it is called, a 

 consorzio, composed of all landowners who 

 take water. Each consorzio elects one or 

 two deputies, who form a sort of water 

 parliament. The deputies are elected for 

 three years, and receive no salary. The 

 assembly of deputies elects three commit- 

 tees — the direction-general, the committee 

 of surveillance, and the council of arbitra- 

 tion. The first of these committees has to 

 direct the whole distribution of the waters, 



^ See Mr. Elwood Mead's ' Report on Irrigation 

 in Northern Italy,' printed for the Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, 1904. 



to see to the conduct of the employees, etc. 

 The committee of surveillance has to see 

 that the direction-general does its duty. 

 The council of arbitration, which consists 

 of three members, has most important 

 duties. To it may be referred every ques- 

 tion connected with water-rates, all disputes 

 between members of the association or be- 

 tAveen the association and its servants, all 

 cases of breaches of rule or of discipline. 

 It may punish by fines any member of the 

 association found at fault, and the sen- 

 tences it imposes are recognized as obli- 

 gatory, and the offender's property may be 

 sold up to carry them into » effect. An ap- 

 peal may be made within fifteen days from 

 the decisions of this council of arbitration 

 to the ordinary law courts, but so popular 

 is the council that, as a matter of fact, such 

 appeals are never made. 



To effect the distribution of the water 

 the area irrigated is divided into districts, 

 in each of which there is an overseer in 

 charge and a staff of guards to see to the 

 opening and closing of the modules which 

 deliver the water into the minor water- 

 courses. In November of each year each 

 parish sends in to the direction-general 

 an indent of the number of acres of 

 each description of crop proposed to be 

 watered in the following year. If the 

 water is available the direction-general 

 allots to each parish the number of modules 

 necessary for this irrigation; but it may 

 quite well happen that the parish may 

 demand more than can be supplied, and 

 may have to substitute a crop like wheat, 

 requiring little water, for rice, which re- 

 quires a great deal. 



The government executes and pays for 

 all repairs on the main canals. It further 

 executes, at the cost of the Irrigation Asso- 

 ciation, all repairs on the minor canals. 

 The association, then, has no engineers in 

 its employ, but a large staff of irrigators. 



