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LVIII. Notices respecting the Strawberries cultivated for 

 the Market in Scotland. By Mr. James Smith, Corres- 

 ponding Member of the Horticultural Society of London, 

 Gardener to the Earl of Hopetoun, at Hopetoun House, 

 near Edinburgh, 



Read August 15, 1826. 



The cultivation of Strawberries in the neighbourhood of 

 large towns in Scotland, is found to be a very lucrative em- 

 ployment, and is therefore carried on to a considerable extent. 

 By its means poor and industrious men have risen to com- 

 parative opulence, and, in some instances, the farmer has 

 been induced to add it to the ordinary branches of agricul- 

 ture. It is stated by Mr. Neill in his Treatise on the Gar- 

 dens and Orchards of Scotland * and I believe from sufficient 

 data, that the quantity of land under Strawberries near Edin- 

 burgh does not exceed a hundred acres.f From what I can 

 learn, this quantity has not been much increased. Mr. Neill 

 has given, in the work referred to, a brief account of the 

 Strawberry Gardens in the vicinity of Edinburgh in the year 

 1812. I am informed that at Glasgow, Strawberries are esti- 

 mated to occupy only one tenth of the Market Gardens, which 

 places the consumption of that town considerably behind 

 that of Edinburgh, in which, from the market-duty paid, the 

 annual supply appears to be from 30,000 to 50,000 Scotch 



* Neill on Scottish Gardens and Orchards, in Sir John Sinclair's General 

 Report on ihe Agricultural State, &c. of Scotland, vol. ii. page 90. 



t The Scotch acre is to the English acre, nearly in the proportion of four to 

 five ; the former containing 6084 square yards, the latter, 4840. 



