Scotland

Orchards and Forests.

The acreage devoted to orchards, which was 1,560 in 188o and 2,482 in 1905, fell to 1,282 in with 8,064 acres under small fruit. The chief areas for tree and small fruit are Clydesdale and the Carse of Gowrie. Market gardening has developed in the neighbourhood of the larger towns. Fisheries.—The Scottish seaboard is divided for administrative purposes into twenty-seven fishery districts, namely, on the east coast, Eyemouth, Leith, Anstruther, Montrose, Stonehaven, Aber deen, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Banff, Buckie, Findhorn, Cromarty, Helmsdale, Lybster, Wick ( 15) ; on the north, Orkney, Shetland (2) ; on the west, Stornoway, Barra, Loch Broom, Loch Carron and Skye, Fort William, Campeltown, Inverary, Rothesay, Greenock, Ballantrae (I 0). The whole of the fisheries are con trolled by the Fishery Board for Scotland. In 1928 the number of fishermen directly employed in fishing was there were 41,633 engaged in curing and preserving the fish landed and in subsidiary industries on shore, making a total of 66,676 persons engaged in the fisheries and dependent industries. This may be compared with a total of 86,271 in 1913. In 1928 the herring fishery yielded 4,235,567 cwts. The most prolific districts are Shetland in the north, Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Wick in the east, and Stornoway in the west. The principal herring market is conti nental Europe, Germany being the largest consumer. In 1928 the catch of fish of all kinds (excepting shellfish) amounted to 218 cwts. The annual value of the shellfish (lobsters, crabs, oysters, mussels, clams, etc.) was £97,974. The weight of salmon carried by Scottish railways and steamers in 1927 was 2,910 ton. In the last few years there has been a steady rise in the salmon catch, and the figure for 1927 was the highest since 1896. There were 7 whalers operating in 1927; 459 whales were caught in 1926, 314 in 1927, and 184 in 1928.

Roads.—In the I2th century an Act was passed providing that the highways between market-towns should be at least 20 ft. broad. Over the principal rivers at this early period there were bridges near the most populous places, as over the Dee near Aberdeen, the Esk at Brechin, the Tay at Perth and the Forth near Stirling. Until the 16th century, however, traffic between distant places was carried on chiefly by pack-horses. The first stage-coach in Scotland was that which ran between Edinburgh and Leith in 161o. In 1658 there was a fortnightly stage-coach between Edinburgh and London, but afterwards it would appear to have been discontinued for many years. Separate Acts enjoin ing the justices of the peace, and afterwards along with them the commissioners of supply, to take measures for the maintenance of roads were passed in 1617, 1669, 1676 and 1686. These provi sions had reference chiefly to what afterwards came to be known as "statute labour roads," intended primarily to supply a means of communication within the several parishes. They were kept in repair by the tenants and cotters, and, when their labour was not sufficient, by the landlords, who were required to "stent" (assess) themselves, customs also being sometimes levied at bridges, ferries and causeways. By separate local Acts the "statute labour" was

in many cases replaced by a payment called "conversion money," and the General Roads Act of 1845 made the alteration universal. The Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act of 1878 entrusted the control of the roads to royal and police burghs and in the counties to road trustees, from whom it was transferred by the Local Government Act of 1889 to county councils. Many of the counties were divided into separately rated districts for road-making pur poses, and there were 106 highway authorities in existence in 1928, including 7 burghal authorities. The Local Government (Scotland) Bill of that year, however, was designed to centralize the administration by reducing the authorities to one for each county. The Highlands had good military roads earlier than the rest of the country. The project, begun in 1725 under the direc tion of General George Wade, took ten years to complete, and the roads were afterwards kept in repair by an annual parliamentary grant. In the Lowlands the main roads were constructed under the Turnpike Acts, the earliest of which was obtained in 175o. As elsewhere in Great Britain, large sums from the Road Fund have been expended in recent years on road-reconstruction and widening and the building of by-pass roads. Work on the Glas gow-Inverness, the Perth-Inverness, and the Glasgow-Edinburgh roads was in progress in 1928. The roads were numbered in 1922.

Canals.—There are four canals in Scotland, the Caledonian, the Crinan, the Forth and Clyde and the Union, of which the Caledonian and Crinan are national property. (See CALEDONIAN CANAL.) The Forth and Clyde Navigation (opened in 1790) runs from Bowling on the Clyde, through the north-western part of Glasgow and through Kirkintilloch and Falkirk to Grangemouth on the Forth, a distance of 35 m. There is also a branch, 24 m. long, from Stockingfield to Port Dundas in the city of Glasgow, which is continued for the distance of I m. to form a junction with the Monkland canal. The reconstruction of the Forth and Clyde Canal to take larger vessels has been much discussed from time to time, but no steps had been taken in the matter by 1929. The Monkland canal (opened in 1792) has a length of 121 m., and runs from the north-east of Glasgow through Coatbridge to Wood hall in the parish of Old Monkland. In 1867 both undertakings passed into the hands of the Caledonian Railway Company. The Union canal, 314 m. long, starts from Port Downie, on the Forth and Clyde canal near Falkirk, and runs to Port Hopetown in Edinburgh. Completed in 1822, it was vested in 1849 in the Edin burgh and Glasgow Railway Company, which in turn was absorbed by the North British Railway Company, and in 1923 by the Lon don and North Eastern Railway. The Aberdeen canal, in m. long, running up the Don valley from Aberdeen to Inverurie, the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal, 11 m. long, and the Forth and Cart Junction canal have been abandoned.