COUNTIES OF EDINBURGH AND LINLITHGOW. a 



The advance in the county of Edinburgh has, therefore, ir/ 

 less than three-quarters of a century, been 205,738, or about 168 

 per cent. ; that of Linlithgow, 23,347, or 131 per cent. The present 

 population of Mid-Lothian is at the rate of 1 '3 persons to each 

 acre, and of West Lothian close upon 2. The employments of 

 the people are variously distributed between trade, commerce, 

 manufactures, and agriculture. 



History of Agriculture. 



In common with many districts south of the Forth, agriculture 

 was pursued in the counties at a comparatively early period. It 

 is indeed averred by some writers that this part of the country 

 produced a considerable amount of grain in the times of the 

 Romans ; as to this, however, we cannot, in the absence of reli- 

 able information, speak with any degree of certainty. A large 

 proportion of the land was then undoubtedly covered with forests, 

 and the culture of corn would generally be confined to fertile 

 patches near the sea-shore, or along the haughs where the soil 

 was deep. 



So early as the 13th century, the monks cultivated large tracts 

 of land on the south of the Forth, and were said to be skilful in 

 the management of extensive orchards. We also have it that 

 they understood something of resting, if not of fallowing their 

 lands, and the rotation of cropping. For a long period after the 

 13th or 14th century, history is silent upon matters relating to 

 agriculture. It may, consequently, be reasonably assumed that 

 small progress was made until about the time of the union of 

 Scotland vvith England, when the farmers of East Lothian had 

 opportunities of seeing for themselves the superior practices in 

 agriculture observed in England, some of which they were not 

 slow in copying. Neighbouring shires soon afterwards followed 

 their example, but for a period extending to three-quarters of a 

 century, farming did not make so much headway as could have 

 been wished, owing not so much to the apathy of agriculturist?, 

 as to the adverse circumstances by which they were too often 

 surrounded. 



At the close of the 11th century, agriculture liad made little 



