BOOKS.

SMITH'S REPORT ON ITALIAN IRRIGATION.* GIBBON recommends a person about to read a new book, to call to mind'all he knows of the subject before beginning; and thus to, test as he proceeds the merit of the author and his own ac- quisitions. If the majority of persons applied Gibbon's test to Cap- tain Smith's Report on the Irrigation of Northern Italy, they would start, we fancy, with very little specific knowledge, and end by acquiring a great deal. Every one has seen or heard of Italian and more especially of Lombard irrigation ; but of its extent, its his- tory, its science, its practice, its statistics and extraordinary re- sults, very few would know anything. On all these subjects the volumes before us supply a large body of information, broad in the general accounts, full in the detailed particulars : the fulness, in-

might be over much in details, if it did not occur in an offi- cial report from an engineer employed by a governing power whose object in requiring the information appears to be the extension and improvement of irrigation in India.

Captain Baird Smith's volumes consist of travels undertaken with a specific purpose, and a full description of the great and varied hydraulic works of Piedmont, and Lombardy, as well as of the old 'Venetian domains and parts of Tuscany. The introductory por- tion gives a rapid account of the author's journey through France to Turin, and then through the states of Piedmont and Lombardy. A recommendatory letter from Lord Palmerston with other creden- tials procured him every assistance from the authorities,- aid a na- tional pride in their remarkable system from engineers and private individuals. The public archives were thrown open to him ; pro- fessional aid, whether in public or private practice, was cheerfully tendered to him ; some private owners of irrigating wafts fur- nished him with practical details; and the agriculturists great and small, proprietors or peasants, received him in a manner which has left the most agreeable impressions. Captain Smith also formed a collection of Italian works on irrigation in the various places he passed through, which gave him the literature—the .history,and theory of the subject, as opposed to floating know- ledge and actual. practice. Of, the outline of his jourmes, and the principal persons he met with, his narrative furnishes a brief sketch, -relieved by an occasional incident ; and conveys, though slightly, a pleasant picture of Italian manners and courtesy. The digest of the information collected constitutes an elaborate review of the whole system. of Italian irrigation in Piedmont and Lombardy in. th_e_ largest sense. There is an historical sketch of the origin and progress of artificial watering n each country, -with an account of eethe formation of the principal works. To understand- the system of each country, and Ind of minor districts, an idea of the geo- graphy of each region is requisite ; and this is given. These general particulars are followed by a descriptive account of the dif- ferent canals pushed to an extent which is only necessary in an official report. The principles of hydraulics, so far as they are ascertained in their application to irrigating works with the mode of allying them in different places—for the old Italian municipal

riv is traceable even in such a matter as hydraulic science—are exhibited with illustrative plans. After this the reader is pre- sented with the agricultural results of irrigation and a picture of rice cultivation and the winter meadows. An elaborate exposition of the law upon the subject completes the text. The volumes are accompanied by. a folio of maps and plans : in an appendix there is a sketch of the ancient and modern irrigation of India, to improve which by the advantage of Italian experience appears to have been the object of the East India Company in despatching Captain Smith on this service.

. Perhaps the first point which arrests the reader's attention is the antiquity of artificial inundation in the Northern regions of Italy. No sooner had the actual devastations of the barbarians ceased, than irrigation, founded, no doubt, on the traditions and re- mains of the Romans, sprang into life ; but it now became national as well as private or civic. Almost -with the rise of Italian states began the origin of Italian irrigation. The modern system com- menced in Lombardy during the twelfth century, and was im- pr_oved if not founded by monks. During the latter half of that century, from 1150 to 1200, some great works were formed;. and as the necessity of measuring the lands after the disturbance of the land-marks by the annual inundations of the Nile is said to have given rise to geometry, so men's necessities and interests di- rected Italian genius to hydraulics, at first empirically, afterwards scientifically, and produced a theory and practice which is supe- rior to anything that exists elsewhere.

In point of time the history of the subject takes the foremost place. Perhaps the extraordinary numbers and ramifications of the works strike the mind more impressively. We look at a modern English map, and we say truly that the network of railways is remarkable ; but this network is as nothing com- pared to the irrigating canals of Lombardy, with their numerous channels for particular flooding ; the right of water giving a right of way on certain conditions, always in favour of the culti- vator. The most extraordinary, and in a practical sense the most important feature, is the agricultural result. It is impossible in reading Captain Smith's account of the vast outlay under scientific guidance—the large body of skilled workmen that irrigation has

. Italian Irrigation: a Report on the Agricultural Canals of Piedmont and Lora- hardy, addressed to the Honourable the Court of Directors of the East India Com- pany. By R. Baird Smith, F.G.S., Captain in the Army, and First Lieutenant of Engineers, Bengal Presidency. In two volumes. Printed by Order. Published by Allen and Co., London; and Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. trained up—the knowledge which is brought to bear upon cultiva. tion—the energetic spirit with which agriculture is followed, and has been for ages, in Northern Italy, with the wonderful results both in rent and crops—to avoid comparing Italian with British agriculture. England is not Italy, and the system of one is*not of course suitable for the other ; but in Italy we see cultivation pursued with all the resources of science and all the spirit of: art, while in England it is not too much to say, that as far as invention, enterprise or life 41; concerned, farming, at least till the repeal of the Corn-laws, has been conducted with a slovenly apathy that could not be paralleled in the meanest trade. The following ex- tract on cultivation in the neighbonrhood of Milan is remarkable, not only for the greatness of the rents, (especially when the rela- tive value Of money is considered,) but for the evidence furnished

as to the use that can be made of sewerage. •

" The city of Milan is encompassed by the waters of canals, whickon tin one side connect it with the Adda, and on the other with the Ticino and the Po. The Naviglio Grande terminates under its walls. The Naviglio Inter- ne, occupying the former ditch of the ancient town, furnishes an inner line of navigation, by which heavy supplies of all kinds are transported, and links the Naviglio Grande with the Naviglio della Martesana, the important line connecting Milan with the river Adda. From the Southern side of the city, the magnificent canal of Pavia, one of the greatest of those public works which Napoleon bestowed on Northern Italy, pursues its course to- wards Pavia ; while numerous smaller channels, supplied directly or indi- rectly from the great arteries just mentioned, cooperate in producing that wondrous fertility which at once attracts the traveller's notice when he first visits the neighbourhood of the city. Among the smaller channels, the most • remarkable is the Vettabbia, the escape line of the Naviglio Interne, and the receptacle, at the same time, of a large portion of the sewerage of the town. With its waters, so rich in fertilizing matter, the adjoining meadows are irrigated, and produce no less than eight crops annually, of which five are grass and three hay. One of the farms watered from this stream, which I visited, gave a rent of 30 francs per pertica, or nearly 81. per acre ; and this was considered a moderate amount, there being farms in the immediate neighbourhood which were rented at from 151. to as high 118 '22/. per acre. Results like these however, were confined to a very narrow circle. including not more than a few square miles immediately around the city. It waa only at Milan that I found the sewerage waters utilized. In the other large towns which I subsequently visited I found no measures taken to benefit by the drainage or the refuse they supplied. Even at Milan it is a portion only of the proceeds of the sewerage which finds its way to the Vettabbia. The stable manure is either sold directly or sent by the proprietors to their farms in the vicinity. The produce of the street clearances is eagerly sought by' the cultivators of the higher lands to the North of the city ; while house manure of different kinds is carried away by another class of cultivators, who. apply it chiefly to the market-gardens around the town. The subterranean channels which communicate with the Vettabbia carry off, therefore, only a limited proportion of the animal and vegetable refuse which Milan supplies ; and it is a mistake to consider this city as an illustration of the utilization of such products on a large scale. There will be no difficulty in understanding the cause of the fertility of the districts adjoining the great towns of the Lombardian plains, when it is borne in mind that in the triangle included between Milan, Lodi, and Pavia, each side of which is little more than twenty miles in length, there are it estimated, not fewer than 100,000 head of cattle, 100,000 pigs, and i25,000 horses, in addition to the human population. It is to the immense supplies of manure' solid and liquid, ob- tamed from these sources, and not to the refuse of the towns themselves, that the richness of the soil is mainly attributable."

' • The following furnishes an agreeable picture of a farm belong- ing to the Count de Cavour. It is probably a crack place the school and dispensary being the result of some hobby or peculiar circumstances. As regards the appearance, comforts, and character of the farmer and his people, Captain Smith found matters much the same elsewhere.

"Having a great desire to see the interior economy of one of those large farms into which the irrigating districts of Piedmont are divided, I availed myself of the kindness of the Count de Cavour ; who afforded me every faci- lity for the examination of a property of his, about eight or nine miles from Cigliano. On the 13th of February, and in company with my constant com- panion, M. Noe, I visited the farm of Leri,.spending the day there with ex- treme pleasure and interest. Under the guidance of Signor Corio, the tenant in occupation, a man full of intelligence and energy—a most prepossessing specimen of the highest class of the Piedmontese farmer—I examined the whole interior and exterior economy of the establishment. It was organized throughout with the utmost forethought and care. The whole labouring po- puLatiob employed were collected in a small village close to the farm-house, where clean and comfortable cottages were provided for each separate family. There was a neat little church, and an active cure for the care of their souls; a doctor and a dispensary for the care of their bodies ; a wine-shop for the comfort of their hearts ; and a school for the cultivation of their intellects. Their little domestic wants were supplied from the general store-shop of the village ; and, if I might judge from the group of happy healthy-looking faces that crowded round to have a glimpse of the 'forestiere Inglese,' I should say

that their condition was in all respects a comfortable one. * * *

"After visiting the huge stables, full of Swiss cows, and the manufactories of cheese, butter, &c., in which so large a portion of the agricultural wealth of the irrigating districts of Piedmont consists, and admiring the neat and cleanly condition in which all were maintained, we wandered over the mea- dows, green as in spring-time, though not a leaf was to be seen around us. These fields were the marcite, or winter-meadows, of Northern Italy ; a spe- cies of cultivation limited, I believe to the plains of Piedmont and Lom- bardy, and to which I have seen nailing similar in any part of the world which I have visited. The formation of these meadows, from which fresh grass is procured during the whole of the winter, is so interesting that I may give here a short general account of it, referring those who may desire more accurate details to a subsequent part of this work. "For the cultivation of marcite, the land is disposed in a series of small ridges and 'rallies. * • * * The breadth of the slopes or wings' is gene- rally about thirty feet, with a height at the centre of about one-tenth the breadth. These dimensions vary somewhat according to local circumstances.; but the proportion between the breadth and height of the slopes, as given, is generally maintained whenever practicable. The constant passage of the water over the roots of the grass stimulates the growth greatly ; from which cause, and also from the fact that the moving water carries forward with it a portion of the rich humus of the soil, the process is found to be a very ex- haustive one for the ground. Twice a year the marcite fields are, therefore, abundantly manured ; and there are, as a general rule, five crops of grass obtained from them during the year. To dispose the surface of a field so as to fit it for marcite costs from 101. to 12/. per acre under ordinary circum- stances; but in some cases, where the movement of noiland the coat of works

for the supply of water are great, the expense rises to 401. and even 501. per acre. Signor Corio estimated the net value of the annual produce of an acre of marcite at about 150 francs, or about 60

The agitation of tenant-right in Ireland, and the attention which Francis Newman has been the means of directing to the ques- tion of entire and absolute property in land generally, give interest to the following system on the larger farms in Lombardy.

"Preparatory to the entrance of the tenant, the proprietor ap.points an engineer to make a most elaborate statistical survey and valuation of the farm, with all its fixtures and stock. This document, of which I have seen many examples, is a perfect record of the condition of the farm when the tenant receives it, and is locally termed the consegna. The tenant is at per- fect liberty to associate an engineer of his own nomination with the party employed by the proprietor ; a right which is frequently exercised. On my asking a friend, who had much experience in such matters, how possible dis- putes between the engineers were adjusted, his reply was, that the system had been so long established, and was now so thoroughly understood, that disputes were very rare indeed; but that, when they did occur, the universal feeling in the profession was to give the tenant the benefit of any doubts which might arise. In the consegna, the engineer describes every field se- parately, indicating its position, form, size, cultivation, enclosures, living and dead, the canals, sluices, bridges, roads, paths, buildings, with all their furniture and fittings. The plantations of mulberry-, &c., are numbered tree by tree, and are divided into separate classes according to their quality and dimensions, each class having an established value. If, at the termination of the lease, which varies from nine to eighteen years, the plantations have decreased, the tenant is debited with the value of the difference; while, on the other hand, if they have increased, the value of this increase is placed to his credit.

"When the period of the lease expires, the engineers are again summoned to frame another survey, which is termed the reconsegna. In this the same minute details are entered into as in the consegna. A comparison is then instituted between these two documents, and a bilancio, or balance-sheet, showing the differences between them, is prepared. In this balance-sheet, every deterioration and every amelioration are exhibited, with the money- value placed upon them by the engineer the tenant finds himself debited with the first and credited with the second, and has either to pay to or re- ceive from his landlord certain sums, according to the results of his own administration of the farm he has held. The system works admirably. I found all parties, landlords and tenants, alike contented with it, and indeed proud of its existence among them. It maintains a very satis- factory state of feeling between the two classes ; for the tenant is en- couraged to invest any capital he may have in improving the farm, being sure of receiving a just return for it, while the landlord has his property permanently benefited by the labours of an intelligent and interested man. It constantly happens that leases are renewed, term after term, sometimes for successive generations."

The somewhat unbusinesslike mode of leaving doubtful matters to an "understanding" could be readily obviated by adopting the plan universal in this country in valuations—that of appointing a third valuer in case of difference, whose decision is final.

In the account of this Report we have of necessity confined our- selves to leading particulars. The extracts are also limited; for a variety of topics press upon us to which we cannot recur. The work, however, is readily attainable, and -will repay the examina- tion of those who take an interest in agriculture generally, or in artificial irrigation, whether the last be looked at as a question of science, or with a view to its practical application in India or our Southern Colonies.