WOULD-BE FARMERS.
Continually, certainly as often as once a week, a letter reaches me from some correspondent, generally an unknown correspondent, asking for particulars about cheap land. The Times quoted the offer of land in Norfolk at 30s. an acre. Every dweller in the East or Midlands knows of land sold or offered at 25 an acre or less. Such value makes the mouth water of all who have been touched by " the magic of pro- perty." A typical letter is before me. "My nephew, who has just returned from five years' farming in Australia, would like to take up a farm in this country where his forbears have farmed before him, and would like to know where such cheap farming land is to be seen." Now some of the cheapest land of any wide area that I am familiar with lies West of the Great North Road between Huntingdon and Peterborough ; and the chalk land on the Wiltshire-Berkshire border on the chalk highland near Marlborough is as low in value ; but huge areas elsewhere have sunk to a like depth.
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