EDINBUKGH TO THE SOMAN CAMP. 83 



judges observed that their pine-apple shape was not 

 accurate^ owing to the faulty nets, and advised that 

 better patterns should be got. From the statement 

 of Mr. Sanderson,, who seems to have been with Mr. 

 Nichol of Easterhouse quite the cheese champion of 

 the day, the only difference between them and the 

 Double Glo^ster was in the shape and size. In ^27, 

 Mr. Sanderson won with Stilton, but the imitations 

 of Cheshire failed. Prizes v/ere also given for the 

 curing of butter, no competitor to send in less than 

 10 fir]?ins, and in due time Sir John Sinclair (who 

 was as enthusiastic upon this point as he was upon 

 salting beef or salving sheep, to say nothing of his 

 Vienna cabbage) was enabled to report that the 

 butter from Aberdeen no longer classed with the 

 fourth-class Irish, and that the difference of 30s. per 

 cwt. between it and the best Dutch had been gra- 

 dually reduced five-sixths. 



Deacon Milne of that town seems to have had a 

 monopoly of the salting prizes. Sometimes we read of 

 him curing 262 tierces of 3001bs. each of beef, and 

 38 tierces of pork, with rock or bay salt ; and later on 

 he shipped his 90,C001bs. weight of beef at Aberdeen, 

 drawn solely from Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, and 

 Kincardineshire. Veal, too, was not overlooked, and 

 there was a prize for the breeder who brought the 

 greatest weight of calves to market, which had been 

 fed on milk for not less than six weeks, and had been 

 carried to the fleshers on spring-carts or by canal. 



The ploughing matches formed no small local 



2 G 2 



