young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

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Lodi to Codogno. —All this country the fame as about Lodi , a dead level, cut into bitsof from three to ten acres, by ditches, without hedges, and planted with double rowsof poplars and willows, all young, for they are cut as foon as the fize is that of a thinnaan: here and there one is left to run up to timber. I remarked, in the meadowsfed, that the ranunculus is avoided by the cows as much as poflible I expedited inone meadow to find it the acris, but much of it was the repens. All this country is al-ternately in tillage ; ridge and furrow every where : no permanent meadow. Afterfeven miles, the road being natural, fhews the foil to be a loamy land, binding withrains *.

Codogno . —Thirteen pertiche of watered land neceffary for a cow, the hay of which iscut thrice and it is fed once; fuch land fells at 300 livres, and lets at 10 livres, freefrom tax. The whole country is ploughed by turns, being down to clover for the cowsfour years.—5-i. Flax , and then millet; 2. maize; 3. wheat and clover; and refts thenfor feeding cows; white clover conaes, but it is bad for cheefe. The reader will note,that this opinion differs from that near Milan.

Codogno to Crema. —Croffing the- Adda, from the Lodizan, there is more arable, andmuch fewer cows.

Milan to Vaprio. —In this line there are fome dairies, but not many. Near the citythere is much grafs, all cut into patch-work of divifions, and planted fo as to feem awood of willows ; after that much tillage, though all is flat, and there are no great ex-ertions in watering. But the road paffes by that fine navigable canal de Martefano frontMilan, which at Vapprio is fufpended as it were againft the hill, twenty feet above theAdda—a noble fpe&acle.

Before we quit the Milanefe, it will be proper to make a general remark on the con-duct of their irrigation, that fome evils are obferved to attend the pradlice for want ofa better forefight and more attention; particularly from the gradual enlargement of thecarrier canals and ditches ; they clean them with fo much care, for the fake of obtainingthe mud, as a manure, that thefe are every where become too wide for the quantity ofwater they convey. Sig. Bignami has written upon this point very rationally, in hisdiffertation SulF abufo difcavare i canali delle roggie ed i fojfi nel Lodigiano ; where he af-ferts that one tenth part of their lands is occupied by canals and ditches. The evilsare numerous, it is not only a confiderable lofs of land, but it is an equal lofs of water,for when an oncio of a given run of water is purchafed, there is a great difference be-tween its fird fitting a great or afmall channel, as in proportion to the fize will be thequantity of ufelefs fluid. The atmofphere is alfo proportionably contaminated, for thisgre t breadth either of ftagnant water, when irrigation is not actually going on, or, whatis worfe, of mud, in fo hot a climate, muft be peltiferous; and to this have been at-tributed the diftempers which have frequently made fuch havoc among their cattle.Another inconvenience is, the great expence of all ere&ions, bridges, fluices, See. Sec.which are in proportion to the breadth of the channels. The remedy is obvious, it is toforbear ail cleanimg for the fake of mud ; to let all aquatic weeds, and other plants,

* As well watered as this country is, yet in the fpring 1779 the feafon was fo dry, that where theLambro enters the i'o, men and women eroded the Po itfelf on foot, as if merely a rivulet ; the reftor ofAlberoni hiinfclf palfed it, and the water reached only to his middle. The damage was great everywhere,but fatal in the Lodizan, where herds of cows were obliged to be fent out of the country to be padured;the mifehief the greater, as from 1774 to 1779 they had augmented their cows 5000. [Opujcoli Scelti,tom vi p. 36.) The climate has, however, in all ages, been fubjeCl to great drourhts. From May 1158, toMay 1159, there fell no rain in Lombardy ; wells and fprings all dried up. The E nperor palfed the Adige ,with his army, near Verona, without boats ; and the Count Palatine of Bavaria palled thus the Po, belowFerrara. Giulini, tom. vi, p. 175.

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