Italian Irrigation. 
187 
Deduct proportion of expenses paid by the landlord 
as follows : — £. s. d. 
Government and communal charges .. ., 0 11 0 
Eepairs of buildings and hydraulic works .. 0 2 9 
Expense of administration, inspections by enA q o q 
giueers, «S:c / 
0 15 9 
Net rent per acre 1 17 9 
" Sucli land as is referred to in these details sells for from AOL 
to 45Z. per acre ; so that the interest on capital thus invested does 
not much exceed 4 per cent. The gross returns from irrigated 
meadow land in the Milanese have formerly been estimated at 
71. 8s. per acre ; and, if these data are to be depended upon, it 
would appear that the rent is just one-fourth of the total amount 
of these returns." 
X. — The Laying-out of Water-Meadows. 
A principal feature in preparing a water meadow is the 
sloping of the land, that the water may be spread in a thin uni- 
form sheet over its surface. In extreme cases this work costs lOZ. 
to 121. per acre. The slope given varies greatly, according to 
the soil and locality, being eight or ten times as great in some 
absorptive soils as in those of a retentive clay. " Colombani 
mentions that for summer meadows in the province of Lodi, the 
breadth in the direction of the slope is 140 metres, or nearly 
460 feet : while the length in the direction transverse to the slope 
is 180 metres, or 590 feet, which would make each of the great 
compartments contain an area of 6 acres English. To each such 
compartment a main irrigating channel, of about 3 feet in 
breadth, running in a direction transverse to the slope, is 
allotted ;" — " in summer meadows it is not usual to have main 
channels." The slope given to the surface of the meadow is, 
when practicable, two-tenths per 100 ; or, in English measure, 
about 3 inches in each 100 feet. Practically an interminable 
variety of dimensions prevail, as regulated by the instinct of the 
Campari, or professional designers of water meadows. To state 
an instance of these variations, Signor Berra, in his detailed in- 
structions for forming water meadows, recommends that the main 
channel having been marked out on the highest lerel of the 
field, minor irrigating channels should be drawn at right angles 
to it, so as to divide the field into compartments "pia?i(?," which 
should never be more than 25 to 30 feet in breadth, and eight or 
ten times as long as they are broad ; the planes should slope from 
the minor channel on each side -03 in 1 ; or, when the breadth is 
30 feet, the slope would be very nearly 12 inches. 
