174 
Italian Irrigation. 
in which the subject is treated, has been a bar to its coming 
generally into the hands of those who have only a general interest 
in the employment of water for agricultural purposes. Mean- 
while the importance of this subject in its various aspects, with 
reference both to England and to India, has been more and more 
recognised, so that a work containing such stores of information 
might well be epitomised for the benefit of the public. 
Any notice then of this work, however imperfect, may in 
some degree further the design of this publication, which appears 
to have had a public rather than a private aim, and if that 
aim pointed to India rather than to England, so intimate are 
now the relations between those two countries that any interest 
excited, any knowledge circulated at home, cannot but react 
favourably on the fortunes of our distant empire. In further- 
ance of this purpose, the author's literary representatives have 
most liberally placed at our disposal the blocks from which the 
illustrations of the Avork were originally executed. 
In our survey of Italian irrigation let us look to its extent, 
and the wealth it has created ; briefly trace its history ; review 
the physical and social advantages which have contributed to 
these results ; and lastly, let us consider how far our position 
differs from theirs, and whether existing differences can be 
removed or obviated. 
I. — Extent and Money-value of the Irrigation. 
The valley of the Po is the great scene of this irrigation, in 
which Lombardy and Piedmont play the leading parts, whilst 
Venetia, as constituted in 1854, had a small share from including 
the district of Verona. 
On the banks of the Ticino, the boundary of Piedmont and 
Lombardy, the system appears to attain its fullest development. 
The supply of water is, however, drawn from the tributaries of 
the Po (particularly those on the left bank), not from the river 
itself, which would be a task attended with much difficulty, 
because the canals must then run parallel with the Po and inter- 
sect its feeders at right angles. 
In Piedmont, according to official returns, the lower provinces 
— Turin, Torea, Vercelli, Novara, Mortara — contain in all 
1,335,680 acres, and of this total area about one-third may be 
deducted as land lost to cultivation by being occupied as sites 
of towns, beds of rivers, lakes, wastes, «S:c., leaving 890,454 
acres fit for culture; of these, 306,613 are actually irrigated, 
besides 180,000 acres scattered through the valleys of Upper 
Piedmont. 
The provinces of Torea and Vercelli, which have an irrigable 
