the irrigating
canals on either side, while on either hand there were grist-mills
busily at work, and had been for hundreds of years, grinding by
water-power where no stream naturally existed. If I mistake not, there
are many such in this city, and in nearly all the cities and villages of
Lombardy. If our farmers would only investigate this matter of
Irrigation as thoroughly as its importance deserves, they would find
that they have neglected mines of wealth all around them more extensive
and far more reliable than those of California. One man alone may not
always be able to irrigate his farm except at too great a cost; but let
the subject be commended to general attention, and the expense would be
vastly diminished. Ten thousand farms together, embracing a whole
valley, may often be irrigated for less than the cost of supplying a
hundred of them separately. I trust our Agricultural papers will agitate
this improvement.

As to Tree-Planting, there can be no excuse for neglecting it, for no
man needs his neighbor's cooeperation to render it economical or
effective. We in America have been recklessly destroying trees quite
long enough; it is high time that we began systematically to reproduce
them. There is scarcely a farm of fifty acres or over in any but the
very newest States that might not be increased in value $1,000 by $100
judiciously expended in Tree-Planting, and a little care to protect the
young trees from premature destruction. All road-sides, steep
hill-sides, ravines and rocky places should be planted with Oak,
Hickory, Chestnut, Pine, Locust, &c., at once, and many a farm would,
after a few years, yield $100 worth of Timber annually, without
subtracting $10 from the crops otherwise depended on. By planting
Locust, or some other fast-growing tree, alternately with Oak, Hickory,
&c., the former would be ready for use or sale by the time the latter
needed the whole ground. Utility, beauty, comfort, profit, all combine
to urge immediate and extensive Tree-Planting; shall it not be
commenced?

Here in Lombardy there is absolutely no farm, however small, without its
rows of Mulberry, Poplar, Walnut, Cherry, &c., overshadowing its canals,
brooks, roads, &c., and traversing its fields in all directions. The
Vine is very generally trained on a low tree, like one of our Plum or
small Cherry trees, so that, viewed at a distance or a point near the
ground, the country would seem one vast forest, with an undergrowth