PADUA, a province of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, in the government of Venice, is bounded on the N. by the province of Treviso, E. by that of Venice, S. by the Polesine, W. by Verona, and N.W. by Vicenza. It extends over 835 English square miles, and is divided into eight districts, containing 104 communes and 771 villages. Its population, which in 1834 was 286,800, in 1857 had risen to more than 318,000 persons. The land is an extensive plain, except on the S.W. side, where the volcanic group of the Euganean Hills rises. It is chiefly drained by the Brenta, the Musone, the Bacchiglione, and the Adige which skirts it on the S.; and has numerous canals, many of which are for irrigation, and some for navigation. The fertility of the soil is very great, and agriculture is well conducted; wine, wheat, maize, rice, oil, great variety of fruit, sheep, poultry, &c., are copiously produced. Hemp, flax, and silk are also extensively grown, and afford some employment to manufacturers, but they are chiefly exported in a raw state. The district of the Euganean Hills has numerous mineral springs; those of Abano, only 6 miles from Padua, are much resorted to by invalids.