in the £400, and he has a block of land of about 600 acres, 160 of which, approximately, is cleared.

6190. By Mr. CLARKSON: How much crop have you got?—I have put in 150 acres this year, but there is no fallow, although I believe in fallow and have had experience of it previously. It will increase the yield as against other methods, I should think, up to five or even ten bushels per acre. The highest yield I have had on this property is 16 bushels. I consider that the average yield in the district is about 12 bushels. I am of opinion that it takes at least three to the acre to pay expenses before getting anything for oneself. I sow 1¼ bushels to the acre, and super according to the class of soil. The 1¼ bushels is for hay, while for wheat I would drop off the quarter bushel. Some of the soils require 150 and even 200 lbs. of manure to the acre, whereas the forest requires only 40 or 50 lbs. per acre. I have been using a four-furrow plough mouldboard and disc with six horses, and four to five acres is a fair day's work. I have been using a 17 cultivator, and 15 or 16 acres is a fair day's work. I use a 17-tine drill, and the average should be 15 or 16 acres a day. I have a May Brothers' harvester with a 5ft. comb. I could not manage more than seven or eight acres with the harvester.

6191. Do you think the use of large machinery would materially affect your costs?—No. I consider that is one of the evils of the community. I believe that bulk handling would reduce costs, and have given thought to the manner in which my wheat would be shifted to the railway siding, which should be in canvas bags, which could be emptied and brought back to the farm for a fresh consignment. Possibly 200 bags run backwards and forwards would suffice. They could be tipped into the elevators and brought back empty. I consider that free trade, so far as the farmers are concerned, would be a big saving, and that his implements should come in free of duty.

6192. Do you think the farmer should pay duty to bolster up manufacturing in his own country?—No, I do not.

6193. By Mr. PAYNTER: Have your crops ever suffered from disease?—Yes, although I could not make out what the disease was. But last year I had a crop which I was sure would go 18 or 20 bushels, but it only returned nine bushels. The wheat thrashed out to nothing. My neighbours were not similarly affected, and I could not place the disease. It seemed very peculiar. I pickle and grade my wheat, but I have no rotation of crops. I have not tried fodder crops or artificial grasses, but I find that vegetables grow well here under irrigation. A friend of mine sent me up to 40 or 50 fruit trees this year and I put them in; some of them died, but the rest of them are looking healthy enough at present. I started pig raising with one sow. My belief is that a farmer cannot get along without pigs, for which the district is quite suitable. Poultry raising with a view to producing eggs is very profitable. That is if a farmer sticks to one breed and uses common sense. The farmer farming on the best lines should hold at least 1,500 acres, and if he does 100 to 150 acres singlehanded, I consider that he is doing well. The land needs cultivation at the same time you are harvesting and at the beginning of summer and before seeding. I consider that co-operation amongst farmers in the purchase of supplies would be a very great advantage, but I have not gone into the matter very thoroughly. So far as the present land laws are concerned whereby settlement is encouraged, I am quite satisfied myself with the terms, but the average farmer goes on to the land expecting a rapid return for his outlay and tries to put in as much as possible, no matter how he does it. He should be able to handle 300 or 400 acres a year by himself, but the man who farms 50 acres well is a better man than the one who puts 150 acres anyhow. When my partner left me I was told that if I could not put in 150 acres on my own, the board would not assist me. At the time I was living on another property, and I had to shift my house from York to re-erect it up here, so I told them it would be impossible for me to put in 200 acres on top of that. The whole of the crop is a failure, but 70 acres will be all right. If I had fallowed, it would have been very much better, but the farmer should have something besides wheat in the shape of grazing to help him along.

6194. Yet you maintain that 150 is all that he can put in by himself without assistance?—Yes, if he fallowed 150 and put in 150 it is as much as he could do, but in mixed farming there are cows and pigs and so on that take up time that is not counted in. Seventeen acres a day for a drill is a fair thing, but he cannot look after pigs and poultry besides.

6195. By Mr. CLARKSON: As an Industries Assistance Board man, if your liabilities were funded and repayment spread over say five or 10 years, would you be able to finance yourself out of the proceeds of your crop from now on?—No, there is the distance from the railway to be considered. I could not do it without mixed farming, grazing. This year I can grow grass the height of a table, but I have not the stock to put on it, and that is simply money going to waste.

6196. By Mr VENN: If the Government supplied deserving settlers with breeding ewes on extended terms, it would be helpful to you?—Yes, my forest country would carry one sheep to the acre all the year round.

6197. But you have no water?—The first thing a farmer should have is water supply; the grass is useless without it. I have two cows and I think that dairying would pay in this district, that is, if the product were turned into cheese. The farmers around Lake Hines think that if they went in for dairy cows that they could get a creamery or butter factory there and each of them should have 15 or 20 cows, but of course if you had to bring the produce to a siding 13 or 14 miles away, it would make all the difference. Good cows, if provided by the Government, would pay just as well as sheep and you have your cash coming in every week, and could keep your store bills down, besides which you would be in a position to provide beef for the city as well. At the present moment, my cows are rolling fat. With mixed farming I could make my farm pay easily. To go on wheat alone, the season is so short that you have to catch it within one month. I have proved that the first drilling and the last drilling has proved a success and the stuff I have drilled in the intermediate stage is a failure. The rainfall here is 15 inches, or about 6 inches in the growing season, and sometimes we have storms. I am prevented from mixed farming owing to the water but I am trying to make a supply. I would like to say so far as the system of farming is concerned, that the first essential