GardeJi Libraries. ' 227 



and repairs of books on rural affairs, and the expenses incidental to them. 

 And a statement of the intromissions of ihe manager on account of this 

 branch, shall be regularly laid before the committee of the United Agricul- 

 tural Society of East Lothian. 



*' The prison at Haddington, and two Sabbath schools in the neighbour- 

 hood, have been supplied, as in former years, from the Haddington divi- 

 sions : — the sloops Christian and Margaret, the Commerce, the Expedition, 

 and the Countess of Haddington, have been supplied twice ; the Nancy four 

 times, and the Dispatch five times, with books for the use of their crews 

 when at sea, from the library at North Berwick. 



" The issues of the books on agriculture and rural affairs have been con- 

 siderable. At the general change, in October 1 827, a part of this branch was 

 combined with the itinerating divisions ; this will bring them more into con- 

 tact with those who are engaged in agricultural pursuits. The manager re- 

 grets, that, in consequence of the smallness of the funds which have been 

 subscribed for this branch, by those more immediately interested in its suc- 

 cess, he has not been able to add so many new volumes on these subjects as 

 he could have wished. The Glasgow Farmer^ s Register, and the London 

 British Farmer's Magazine, are regularly received and circulated amongst 

 the subscribers ; and the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agricidture, which 

 is to contain the Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society, 

 will be ordered as soon as published. 



" As botany and gardening are intimately connected with agriculture, at 

 the desire of a subscriber to that branch, Loudon's Gardener's Magazine 

 has also been procured from its commencement, and will be continued. 

 This publication, besides being circulated amongst the subscribers, will also 

 be lent to the gardeners of any of the ladies and gentlemen who are donors 

 to the institution. 



" As a considerable part of the county is still unsupplied with libraries, 

 and, as the issues at some of the present stations have not been so numerous 

 as might have been expected, the manager, at every future exchange^ wilt 

 remove the division at least for one year, from the station where there have 

 been fewest issues during the preceding two years. It is expected that this 

 arrangement will induce the present readers, to endeavour to interest their 

 neighbours in the perusal of the books brought within their reach, by this 

 institution. 



" There is no part of the success of the measures pursued in the manage- 

 ment of these libraries which has afforded the manager more pleasure, than 

 the great increase of subscribers since he adopted the plan of reserving to 

 them, for some time, the use of the new books. 



" The greatest number of annual subscribers before that arrangement was 

 8. The number of subscribers after that arrangement, in 1822, 64 j 1823, 

 61; 1824,54; 1825,99; 1826,110; 1827,135. 



" It has proved the possibility of rapidly supplying a county with gratui- 

 tous libraries at a very small expense to the subscribers ; and at the same 

 time giving them and their families access to a great variety of new publi- 

 cations, which appear, from the number of issues, to have been as gratifying 

 to them as they will prove extensively useful to others. In consequence 

 of there being a station for new books at North Berwick, as well as at Had- 

 dington, the manager has been enabled to furnish the subscribers with the 

 use of a much greater number of recent publications, by mutual exchange, 

 than could have been procured by any other arrangement. 



" The success of the plan of keeping the new books for the use of sub- 

 scribers, and of having different divisions of them in neighbouring towns, or 

 in different parts of our larger cities, it is hoped, will induce other indivi" 

 duals and societies to adopt it; by such a measure they would promote the 

 improvement of all classes of the community. The books belonging to the 

 East Lothian libraries are read in the families of the first respectability in 



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