500 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 567. 



The irrigation module employed in Pied- 

 mont is supposed to deliver 2.047 cubic feet 

 per second. The association west of the 

 Sesia buys from the government what water 

 it requires at a rate fixed at 800 liras per 

 module, or £15 12s. 7d. per cubic foot per 

 second per annum. 



The association distributes the water by 

 module to each district, and the district by 

 module to each parish. Inside the parish 

 each farmer pays, according to the area he 

 waters, a sum to cover all the cost of the 

 maintenance of the irrigation system, and 

 his share of the sum which the association 

 has to pay to the government. This sum 

 varies from year to year according as the 

 working expenses of the year increase or 

 diminish. 



I have already mentioned the recently 

 constructed Villoresi Canal in Lombardy. 

 This canal belongs to a company, to whom 

 the government have given large conces- 

 sions. This company sells its water whole- 

 sale to four districts, each having its own 

 secondary canal, the cubic meter per second, 

 or 35.31 cubic feet per second, being the 

 unit employed. These districts, again, re- 

 tail the water to groups of farmers termed 

 comizios, whose lands are watered by the 

 same distributary channels, their unit being 

 the liter, or .035 cubic foot per second. 

 "Within the comizio the farmer pays accord- 

 ing to the number of hours per week that 

 he has had the full discharge of the module. 



I have thought it worth while to describe 

 at some length the systems employed on 

 these Italian canals, for the Italian farmers 

 set a very high example, in the loyal way 

 in which they submit to regulations which 

 there must at times be a great temptation 

 to break. A sluice surreptitiously opened 

 during a dark night, and alloM^ed to run 

 for six hours, may quite possibly double the 

 value of the crop which it waters. It is 

 not an easy matter to distribute water 



fairly and justly between a number of 

 farms at different levels, dependent on dif- 

 ferent watercourses, cultivating different 

 crops. But in Piedmont this is done with 

 such success that an appeal from the coun- 

 cil of arbitration to the ordinary law courts 

 is unheard of. It is thought apparently 

 as discreditable to appropriate an unfair 

 supply of water as to steal a neighbor's 

 horse, as discreditable to tamper with the 

 lock of the water module as with the lock 

 of a neighbor's barn. 



MR. Schuyler's views as to government 



CONTROL. 



"Where such a high spirit of honor pre- 

 vails I do not see why syndicates of farm- 

 ers should not construct and maintain a 

 good system of irrigation. Nevertheless, I 

 believe it is better that government should 

 take the initiative in laying out and con- 

 structing the canals and secondary chan- 

 nels at least. A recent American author, 

 Mr. James Dix Schuyler, has put on rec- 

 ord: "That storage reservoirs are a neces- 

 sary and indispensable adjunct to irriga- 

 tion development, as well as to the utiliza- 

 tion of power, requires no argument to 

 prove. That they will become more and 

 more necessary to our western civilization 

 is equally sure and certain; but the signs 

 of the times seem to point to the inevitable 

 necessity of governmental control in their 

 construction, ownership and administra- 

 tion. ' ' 



This opinion should not be disregarded. 

 Sir W. Willcocks has truly remarked : " If 

 private enterprise can not succeed in irri- 

 gation works of magnitude in America, it 

 will surely not succeed in any other country 

 in this world. ' ' "What its chances may be 

 in South Africa I leave to my hearers to 

 say. It is not a subject on which a stranger 

 can form an opinion. 



C. Scott Moncrieff. 



