MEASUREMENT AND DIVISION OF WATER. 
5 
great credit upon Soldati and the magistrates of Milan 
who so firmly grasped the conditions of the problem. That- 
these measures are no longer satisfactory is evidenced by 
the fact that none of the large modern canals have adopted 
them. The Cavour Canal, the Canale Casale, the Canale Vil- 
loresi have all adopted systems depending upon the weir. 
The insufficiency of the old measures is further evidenced 
by the fact that the Italian Government required in one of 
its acts of concession a proposition for a new module for 
the measure and sale of water. 
The one proposed and adopted by this canal—the 
Canale Villoresi—will be especially described, because it 
seems to dispose of some of the difficulties which have 
made the weir system objectionable. 
In the measurement of water there are two distinct 
classes of measuring boxes, different in their object. 
One is the dividing box, whose object is to give to* 
each consumer some definite portion of the water 
flowing in the ditch. This box is found especially 
in the laterals owned in common by two or three 
neighbors, or in the smaller canals owned and operated by 
the stockholders. The other class is the measuring box 
which lias in general for an object to give the consumer a 
certain definite quantity of water, as one cubic foot per sec¬ 
ond. These need to be adjustable, so that in times of 
scarcity the amount may be reduced proportionately as 
the quantity in the canal decreases. To this last class the- 
Italians give the name of module. The French writers on 
irrigation, and to a limited extent the English, have adopted 
the word, and, as such a word is needed in our irrigation 
vocabulary, the term is here used. Module will therefore- 
be used to designate those boxes or devices, whatever their 
form, whose object it is to measure the quantity of water- 
delivered, or to give a constant flow. The word divisor will 
be restricted to the first class, whose only object it is to di- 
