Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

GALLON, n. A measure of capacity (gen. liquid), formerly in Scot. roughly equal to three Imperial gallons or twelve quarts. Since 1824 the Imperial measure has been generally adopted.Sc. 1707 Acts Parl. Scot. XI. 407: 
[Article of Union VII.]. The thirty four Gallons English Barrel of Beer or Ale amounting to twelve Gallons Scots present measure.Sc. 1779 Swinton Weights & Measures 29:
In charging the duties on the species called two-penny ale or beer, 36 English gallons are, in practice, allowed for the barrel, and 12 Scotch gallons are held to be equal thereto.Sc. 1826 Scots Mag. (Feb.) 244:
The Scottish gallon of 8 Scottish pints, “by which ale, beer, etc. are usually sold”, was found to be to the Imperial gallon as 3.0065122 to 1.

Comb.: †gallon-tree, a cask for holding a specified number of gallons of liquor. See Tree.Ags. 1712 in A. Jervise Land of Lindsays (1853) 342:
In the brew huss three gallon trees, on[e] eighteen gallon tree, seven five gallon trees.Rnf. 1815 W. Finlayson Rhymes 14:
Whose sma'est quill A twa-pint gallon-tree o' beer Wad scarcely fill.