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girls, and there were about 40 casual workers, half of
whom were women and girls. A feature peculiar to this intensive
vegetable production is the large number of women and girls
and boys employed.
Unfortunately from the food producing point of view much
of this valuable market garden land has been lost to the
house builder, including 170 acres of the finest land in
the parish. On the credit side of the agricultural account,
however, recent developments carried out by the Lowe Brothers
at Burnside, East Loan, have produced a system of multiple
cropping by forcing hitherto unknown in this country. By
the processes of irrigation, and steam-heating and sterilisation
of the soil, and by the raising of the finest of seed stocks,
previously obtainable only in the more favoured areas of
Europe, vegetables of the finest quality are grown in regular
succession and enormous annual crop production is realised
from a comparatively small area.
Transport and Commerce.- Almost until the close of
the 19th century Prestonpans was largely a self-contained
com- munity. This is no longer the case, for, like many
other small communities, Prestonpans has become urbanised
and is to a considerable extent now an offshoot of Edinburgh.
This may be due to many causes, but there is no doubt the
increased facilities of transport have contributed much
to the changes which have taken place. The main East Coast
railway passes close to Preston village and there is a good
service between Prestonpans Station, as it is called, and
Edinburgh. The increase in railway fares has in recent years
tended to bring about a drop in the numbers who make irregular
journeys by rail to Edinburgh, but weekly season tickets
are issued to workers who dwell in Prestonpans but work
in Edinburgh. Before the beginning of the present century,
there were no regular road services for passengers between
the parish and Edinburgh. Occasionally two-horse brakes
would ply on the road. In the first decade the Musselburgh
and District Electric Light and Traction Company built a
track to Port Seton and tramcars ran for about twenty years
from Musselburgh to Port Seton. In 1923 or 1924 a through-running
arrangement was made with Edin- burgh Corporation. In 1927
a bus company, known as the
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