WISBECH 105 



change hands in the district once in twenty-five or 

 thirty years. It is now mostly in the hands of 

 small occupiers, nine-tenths of whom are owners. 

 The small men are often able to pay for 3 or 4 

 acres outright, or else contract a mortgage for half 

 or two-thirds of the price, which is, as a rule, 

 gradually paid off. 



In the immediate neighbourhood of Wisbech 

 one finds the small men continually putting up 

 their own houses, at a cost of about 150. The 

 average price of land is about 40 to 50 an acre 

 upwards. Ordinary agricultural land lets at from 

 l 10s. to 2 an acre ; if under fruit, its letting 

 value would be 3 and 4 an acre, or more, but 

 most of the fruit land is occupied by its owners. 

 The Parish Councils of the adjoining villages let 

 allotments at from l 13s. to l 17s. an acre, which 

 have been the means of enabling many small men 

 to get a start on the land. 



CULTIVATION. 



Most of the fruit-trees seem to have been planted 

 about thirty or forty years ago : they are chiefly 

 apples and plums ; bush fruits strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, currants, and gooseberries are planted 

 between the trees. The cultivation differs from 

 that of Evesham in not being so intensive, and in 

 the absence of so much vegetable-growing as is 

 found in connection with the fruit in the latter 

 district. One occasionally sees cabbage and onions, 

 etc., between the strawberries, and bulb-growing 



