COUNTIES OF EDINBURGH AND LINLITHGOW. 1 



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laro-e beds of heath and barren pasture, which at one time were 

 thought irreclaimable. 



The county of West Lothian, though fairly rich in its agricultural 

 capabilities, has nearly all varieties of soil. According to proxi- 

 mate calculations, about^ 20,000 acres are clay, either of carse kind 

 or otherwise of fine quality; 22,700 are clay, on a cold bottom 

 9500 are loam; 9500 are light gravel and sand; 14,000 are moor- 

 land and high rocky ground; 1500 are moss; and the remainder 

 is occupied by a few patches of peculiar soils, lakes, and rivers. 

 In Carriden parish the land is light and early, and is capable of 

 producing good crops. It is scarcely possible to give a general 

 character to the soils of Abercorn, so rapid and manifold are the 

 changes which it undergoes. Sandstone, whinstone, limestone, 

 and coal are extensively wrought, and add in no small degree to 

 the wealth of the district. A better and more uniform subject 

 prevails in Dalmeny, upon which thrive good crops of wheat, 

 potatoes, and turnips, as also the luxuriant and picturesque plan- 

 tations of the Earl of Eosebery. In the parish of Cramond there 

 is some good land, in a high state of cultivation. Heavy-cropping 

 soils are general throughout almost the entire parish of Dudcling- 

 ston. At the opening of last century it consisted of nothing but 

 an unreclaimed moor, growing little but scrubby heath and the 

 stunted juniper ; now there are few, if any, foul spots to stain the 

 agricultural picture. Eastward from the town of Linlithgow, a 

 broad band of strong clayey land overlies the carboniferous sys- 

 tem, and stretches to a considerable distance. It is fairly pro- 

 ductive when well farmed, but somewhat difficult to work, and 

 in ungenial seasons the crops are rather late. That portion of 

 West Lothian lying to the south-west of the town of Bathgate 

 has some good soil, but in the hilly districts it is much intermixed 

 with patches of heath and moor. In the parish of Torphichen is 

 also some wet moor tow^ards the west, but the land under the 

 plough is fertile and well cultivated. In this district the farming 

 is necessarily of a mixed character, being partly pastoral, partly 

 arable. In the Penicuik district, lying a few miles to the south 

 of the city of Edinburgh, the surface is chiefiy moorland, with 

 moss and mountain pasture, but much has been reclaimed in 

 twenty-live years. There is a considerable extent of w-ood in the 

 locality. Coal and other minerals are found, but are not worked 

 (3xtensively. The population is somewhat sparse and scattered. 

 Towards the south-east extremity of ]\ril-Lothian the land is hilly 

 and not very favourable f(jr tillage. The upper soil is only mode- 

 rately fertile. It rests upon gray wacke and clay slate. A con- 

 siderable breadth of land in the CJala water district is entirely 

 inaccessible to the plough, but the hills are covered with a short 

 succulent herbage, well adapted for sheep. Of late years the moors 

 have been much dried by the formation of sheep drains or open 



