According to the census of 1891 there were in the county 1538 Gaelic-speaking persons, of whom 8 spoke Gaelic only, and there were 204 foreigners. Valuation in 1889-90, £856,173; 1899-1900, £920,246.
Administration.—The county returns two members to Parliament—for the East and West divisions respectively. Besides the county town, Aberdeen (121,623), which returns two members, there are in the county two royal and parliamentary burghs, Inverurie (3105) and Kintore (686), and one parliamentary burgh, Peterhead (12,195), all of which belong to the Elgin group of burghs for parliamentary representation. Important police burghs are Huntly (3760), Fraserburgh (7466), and Turritf (2341). There are 82 civil parishes, 24 of which belong to the Buchan Combination, with a poorhouse at Maud, while the city parish has poorhouses in Aberdeen. The number of paupers and dependants iu September 1899 was 6698. The county forms a sheriffdom with Banff'and Kincardine, and there are two resident sheriffs-substitute in Aberdeen, who sit also at Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Huntly, and Turrilf.
Education.—Ninety-two school boards manage 258 schools, which had an average attendance of 43,388 in 1898-99, while 38 voluntary schools, of which 14 are Episcopal and 6 Roman Catholic, had 5507. There are 3 higher-class schools in Aberdeen,' and secondary schools at Huntly, Peterhead, and Fraserburgh, and 69 other schools in the county earned grants in 1898 for giving secondary education. The County Secondary Education Comndttee dispensed £4253 in 1899, of which £2247 came from the Education Department and £2006 was contributed by local authorities from the “residue” grant, and supported, besides the schools mentioned, local classes and itinerant lectures in agriculture, fishery, and other technical subjects, besides subsidizing the agricultural department of the university of Aberdeen.
Agriculture.—In no county in Scotland has a more productive soil been made out of unpromising material during the 19th century. Oats are the predominant crop, but the barley acreage has been nearly doubled since 1872, while wheat has practically gone out of cultivation. The most distinctive industry is cattlefeeding. A large number of the home-bred crosses are fattened for the London and local markets, and Irish animals are imported on a large scale for the same purpose. An exceedingly large business in the sale of live stock and dead meat is done all over the county, and the average weekly export of dead meat from Aberdeen for the London and southern markets has been estimated at 150 to 200 tons, while the shipment of cattle for the same destinations averages 50 to 70 head weekly. The following table gives the principal acreages at intervals of five years from 1880:—
| Year. | Area under Crops. | Corn Crops. | Green Crops. | Clover. | Permanent Pasture. | Fallow. |
| 1880 | 603,226 | 212,767 | 104,203 | 269,645 | 25,861 | 748 |
| 1885 | 611,424 | 215,950 | 102,469 | 263,004 | 29,372 | 628 |
| 1890 | 614,365 | 213,887 | 101,243 | 268,058 | 30,290 | 543 |
| 1895 | 630,070 | 215,730 | 101,709 | 276,389 | 35,711 | 196 |
| 1899 | 630,121 | 214,920 | 100,109 | 283,968 | 30,563 | 184 |
The following table gives particulars of the live stock during the same years:—
| Year. | Total Horses. | Total Cattle. | Cows or Heifers in Milk or Calf. | Sheep. | Pigs. |
| 1880 | 26,851 | 152,106 | 41,318 | 137,693 | 7,240 |
| 1885 | 25,693 | 166,003 | 45,235 | 158,587 | 10,761 |
| 1890 | 26,637 | 163,240 | 43,261 | 195,689 | 12,061 |
| 1895 | 31,114 | 173,961 | 43,497 | 183,951 | 10,379 |
| 1899 | 30,330 | 175,407 | 45,540 | 232,863 | 12,346 |
Aberdeenshire has by far the largest cultivated area of any county in Scotland, and the largest number of holdings, but the percentage of cultivation is only 49·6. Of the 11,567 holdings in 1895, the average size was 54 acres. The percentage under 5 acres was 14·37; between 5 and 50 acres 49·23, and over 50 acres 36·40. Farms between 50 and 100 acres numbered 2164, between 100 and 300, 1912; between 300 and 500, 124, and between 500 and 1000, 10; there were none above 1000 acres. According to the census of 1891 there were 26,386 men and 1213 women engaged in agriculture. The acreage under wood in 1895 was 108,976, of which 7986 had been planted since 1881.
Industries and Trade.—There are now a number of papermaking establishments in the shire, most of them on the Don in the vicinity of Aberdeen. Aberdeen is the premier granite county in the kingdom. There are quarries at Aberdeen, Kemnay, Peterhead, and elsewhere, and the output was 242,168 tons valued at £132,373 in 1895, and 335,075 tons valued at £176,461 in 1899. Quarrying and dressing the stone gave employment in 1891 to 6294 persons. Fishing, however, is the next most important industry to agriculture. The nineteen ports and creeks of the county are divided into the three fishery districts of Peterhead, Fraserburgh, and Aberdeen, the last of which includes also three Kincardineshire ports. The following table gives statistics of the three districts jointly in 1890, 1898, and 1899:—
| Year. | Boats. | Value of Gear. | Resident Fishermen and Boys. | Total Value of all Fish. | ||
| No. | Tons. | Value. | ||||
| 1890 | 1503 | 18,994 | £193,817 | £153,695 | 4822 | £556,657 |
| 1898 | 1530 | 22,306 | £497,659 | £167,668 | 3929 | £883,129 |
| 1899 | 1436 | 22,959 | £731,534 | £164,243 | 5417 | £968,805 |
The number of persons in the three districts employed in the various branches of the sea fisheries was 21,232 in 1899. Between a half and a third of the catch consists of herrings. The herring season for Aberdeen, Peterhead, and Fraserburgh is from June to September, at which time the ports are crowded with boats from other Scottish districts. The development of the fisheries of late years has been due to the trawlers almost exclusively. (See ABERDEEN.) There are valuable salmon fishings—rod, net, and stake-net—on the Dee, Don, Ythan, and Ugie. The average annual despatch of salmon from Aberdeenshire during the years 1894 to 1898 was about 400 tons. A branch (15^ m.) of the Great North of Scotland Railway was opened in 1897, and a light railway (13 m.) has been sanctioned.
AUTHORITIES.—A. SMITH. New History of Aberdeenshire. Aberdeen, 1875.—W. WATT. History of Aberdeen and Banff. Edinburgh, 1900.—SIR A. LEITH-HAY. Castles of Aberdeenshire. Aberdeen, 1887.—J. DAVIDSON. Inverurie and the Earldom of the Garioch. Edinburgh, 1878.—W. TEMPLE. The Thanage of Formartyn. Aberdeen, 1894.—PRATT. Buchan by R. Anderson). Aberdeen, 1900.—A. I. M'CONNOCHIE. Deeside. Aberdeen, 1895. The Royal Dee. Aberdeen, 1898. Queen Victoria's Highland Home. Aberdeen, 1897.—W. FERGUSON. The Great North of Scotland Railway. Edinburgh, 1881. — A. JERVISE. Epitaphs and Inscriptions. Edinburgh, 1875, 1879.—Transactions of Buchan Field Club. Peterhead, 1887.—A Guide to Donside. Aberdeen, 1866. (w. WA.)
Abergavenny, a municipal borough (1899), market-town, and railway station, in the northern parliamentary division of Monmouthshire, England, at the confluence of the Gavenny and the Usk, 16 miles W. of Monmouth. The lunatic asylum has been enlarged and a cottage hospital built. Population of urban district (borough) in 1891, 7743, on an area of 825 acres; in 1901, 7795; of parish in 1881, 7886; in 1891, 9036.
Aberystwith, a municipal borough, market town, and seaport of Cardiganshire, Wales, at the confluence of the Ystwith and Pheidol, 244 miles from London by rail. It ceased to be a parliamentary borough in 1885. Modern erections are two Established churches, Wesleyan and Welsh Calvinist chapels, a pier pavilion, a ladies’ hostel in connexion with the University College of Wales, baths, and a new infirmary. The University College of Wales was opened in 1872, and in 1900 had 31 professors and 474 students. In the town and neighbourhood are engineering works, foundries, and slate-quarries. The corporation is lord of the manor, and owns nearly four fifths of the town. Population in 1881, 7088; in 1891, 6725; in 1901, 8013. Area, 845 acres.
Abeshr. See WADAI.
Abila, (1) the capital of the tetrarchy of Abilene, was an important town on the imperial highway from Damascus to Heliopolis (Baalbek), and is now represented by Suk WAdi Baradd, a village callecj by early Arab geographers Abil es-Siik. The tetrarchy was granted by Caligula, 37 A.D., to Agrippa I., and by Claudius, 52 A.D., to Agrippa II. (2) A city in Perea, now Abil ez-Zeit.
Abingdon, a municipal borough and market-town in the Abingdon parliamentary division (since 1885) of Berkshire, England, 61 miles W.N.W. of London by rail The old churches of St. Helen and of St. Nicholas have been restored, a corn exchange, a cottage hospital, and a
