In the matter of fruit culture, Aberdeen is far behind Perthshire and Lanark, which have a richer soil and a superior climate. But the Aberdeen strawberries, grown mostly on Deeside, are noted for size and flavour. In 1909 only 219 acres were devoted to this crop. The cultivation of raspberries, which is so great a feature of lower Perthshire, has made only a beginning in Aberdeen, and the small profits that have come to southern growers of this crop in recent years have acted as a deterrent, in its extension. 12. The Granite Industry. Aberdeen has long been known as “The Granite City.” It is built of granite, chiefly from its great quarries at Rubislaw. The granite is a light grey, somewhat different in texture and grain from another grey granite much in vogue, that of Kemnay on Donside. There are many quarries in the county, and each has its distinctive colouring. The Peterhead stone is red; Corrennie is also red but of a lighter hue. The granite industry has made great strides of recent years. The modern appliances for boring the rock by steam drills, the use of dynamite and other explosives for blasting, as well as the devices for hoisting and conveying stones from the well of the quarry to the upper levels by means of Blondins have all revolutionised the art of quarrying. [Illustration: Granite Quarry, Kemnay] It was long before Aberdeen people realised the value of the local rocks for building purposes. The stone used in the early ecclesiastical buildings was sandstone, which was imported by sea from Morayshire and the Firth of Forth. The beginnings of St Machar Cathedral and the old church of St Nicholas as well as the church of Greyfriars, built early in the sixteenth century and recently demolished, were all of sandstone. Not till the seventeenth century was granite utilised. At first the surface stones were taken, then quarrying began about 1604, but little was done till 1725. Between 1780 and 1790 as many as 600 men were employed in the Aberdeen quarries. Great engineering works such as the Bell Rock Lighthouse, the Thames Embankment, the foundations of Waterloo Bridge, the Forth Bridge and London Bridge, where great durability and solidity are necessary, were made possible by the use of huge blocks from Aberdeenshire. The polishing of the stone made a beginning in 1820, and now a great export trade in polished work for staircases, house fronts, façades, fountains and other ornamental purposes is carried on between the county and America as well as the British Colonies.