Italian Irrigation. 
175 
area of 270,000 acres, are actually irrigated to the extent of 
121,250 acres. The addition to the rental of land through the 
country due to this source of increased production may be esti- 
mated approximately at a little more than 290,000/. 
Lomhardy, together with the provinces of Brescia, Mantua, 
and part of Verona, contains a total area of G|- millions of acres ; 
of these, 1,061,292 acres are under irrigation in summer, and 
12,837 form marcite, special winter water-meadows ; the plain, 
therefore, as a whole, is irrigated to the extent of about one-sixth 
of its total, and about one-fifth of its productive area. " There is 
a progressive decrease in the ratio of irrigation to area as we 
proceed from west to east. Between the Ticino and the Adda 
irrigation is applied over nearly nine-tenths of the surface ; 
between the Adda and Oglio over about two-tenths ; between the 
Oglio and the Adige over not more than one-seventh or one- 
eighth." 
The great Government canals are 133 miles long ; there are 
353 branch canals, which, at an assumed average of 10 miles, 
amount to 3530 miles. To the eastward of the Adda there are 
some 700 or 800 miles of canals, many of which are private 
property'. Even to approximate to the length of the minute 
arteries of the system is quite impossible. 
" At a very moderate estimate the increased returns from 
the land throughout the Milanese alone may be estimated at 
270,000/. ; in the other irrigated provinces at about 290,000/. 
per annum." 
" Throughout the entire valley of the Po, including Piedmont 
and Lombardy, the extent of irrigation amounts to 1,547,905, 
or in round numbers 1,600,000, acres, being about one-sixth of 
its total area. The mass of water utilised, is nearly 24,000 cubic 
feet per second, the value of which, in capital, at 250/. per 
cubic foot, amounts to 4,000,000/. sterling [should not this be 
6,000,000/. ?] ; and the increased rental due to its employment 
is, at a very moderate estimate, 830,000/. per annum." " To 
minds accustomed to the statistics of England these details may 
not seem imposing ; but regarded in reference to the compara- 
tively limited districts to which they apply, they are in truth 
large and important," and their history is " read on the face of 
the land and in the material condition of its two-and-a-half 
millions of inhabitants." 
If we look to the income derived directly from these canals, 
the account will not be equally satisfactory. 
In Piedmont the direct water-rents *' may be calculated at 
about 25,000/. annually, of which fully four-fifths appertain to 
the State and the remainder to private parties. It must not be 
overlooked that this amount is far beneath the proper return for 
