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 improving, are for the most part much less convenient and comfortable. Here, as in every other part of Scotland, a lease for nineteen years is the most common bond of connection between the landholder and farmer; but it would appear that the covenants of leases are still in a considerable degree dictated by feudal ideas.

In most parts of Aberdeenshire, cattle are a more important object to the tenantry than corn; the number is stated at 110,000; and the sales, to England and to the south of Scotland, amounting to about 12,000, are estimated to bring L. 150,000 annually. About two-thirds of the population depend entirely on agriculture; and oatmeal, prepared in different ways, is the principal food of the labouring classes.

Besides the salmon-fisheries already noticed, the sea-fishing employs a number of hands. The Greenland whale-fishery has been carried on with great success, by ships fitted out from Aberdeen and Peterhead. The whole fisheries connected with the county yield from L. 80,000 to L. 100,000 annually.

The staple manufacture, the knitting of stockings, has declined considerably for several years; and that of linen and thread has been deeply injured by the high price of flax during the late war. But these manufactures, together with those of woollen and cotton, are by no means inconsiderable. There are also establishments for making sail-cloth, inkle, paper, &c.; and, from the characteristic ingenuity and enterprize of the people, there is reason to expect that a few years of peace will greatly extend all these branches of industry.

This county has always possessed a share of our foreign trade, chiefly of that with the north of Europe; and the recent improvements on the harbour of Aberdeen must contribute essentially to the extension of its commerce. There were, in 1910, belonging to Aberdeen, Peterhead, and Newburgh, 207 vessels, carrying 23,390 tons, and employing 1473 men. In 1807 a canal was opened from the harbour of Aberdeen to the town of Inverury, a distance of 18¼ miles, the expence of which was about L. 44,000. The facilities which this canal affords for the conveyance of coal and lime have already proved highly beneficial to the agriculture of the county.

The valued rent of the county is L. 235,665, 8s. 11d. Scots; and, according to the assessment to the property-tax for the year ending 5th April 1811, the real rent, which has been doubled within these 30 years, amounts, for the lands to L. 233,826, 19s. 10d. and for the houses to L. 65,557, 9s. 9d. Sterling.

The population of this county, as ascertained under the act of the 41st of the King, in 1800, was 123,082. The town and parish of Aberdeen at this time contained 17,597 inhabitants. By the returns made under the population act of 1811, the numbers were increased to 135,075 for the county, and 21,639 for the town and parish. In the returns made under these acts, the county was divided into eight districts, viz. Aberdeen, Alford, Deer or Buchan, Ellon, Garioch, Kincardine O’Neil, Strathbogie, and Turreff. The following tables will shew the results of the returns applicable to these districts at the two periods above mentioned. In this, as in the other maritime counties of the north, there is a considerable disproportion between the numbers of the sexes.