to pay. I use an 8-furrow disc plough with six horses, and with which I can do eight acres a day with a 15-drill I do 15 acres, or an acre to the disc. The cultivator is a 17- times spring tooth, and does about 16 acre a day. I use a reaper- thresher and find it to be satisfactory. It saves the grain very well and will handle high crop better than the harvester. A big Sunshine harvester could do 30 acres a day. Most of the small farmer work with a two or three- furrow plough but they are no good. At the same time I think it is possible to have implements too big on account of the number of horses that are required.

6407. Would you call a 6 furrow mouldboard plough with eight horses too big fir a man to manage?— I think it is a lot of horses to look after. Personally I do not like more than six horses in a team. Bulk handling would reduce cost., and I think I could arrange to fix a box on the wagon for conveyance to the siding. The cost of machinery is very high indeed, but to rebate all the duty upon it might interfere with local manufactures too much. We know as a fact that the McKay harvester is sold in America at a lower figure tan we pay for it here.

6408. To Mr. PAYNTER: Last year when the crop was about to foot high we had a sort of blight and a little rust. It did not pinch the grain, how-ever; the rust was on the flag. Two or three patches went black with rust, probably a quarte of an acre, but the rust did not seem to affect the yield very mach. In one paddock it reduced it from what would have been 18 bushels down to 10 bushels .I do not think one need to pickle wheat every year. I have tried it every year, sowing half without pickling and have never seen smut. I would advocate pickling every other year. If you keep one paddock for seed and pickle it, it might do 20 or 30 acres but you do not need to pickle in the next year. Any wheat that is drilled in before the rain comes will not get smut. I believe in grading, and we generally do it with a winnower. In the way of fodder crop I have only tried a little rape last year on sand plain where I had a garden. The rape never had any water and was never touched, but there were good summer rains. It grew 7ft. high and 6ft. across without manure. I put the pig in the paddock and they were left there a month and yet it was only one row. Fruit tree are a failure, and in any case they require so much looking after. Vegetables grow splendidly. I think pig will prove profitable if they are properly looked after. But when the bad season came we had to get rid of them. I gave a man three sows and told him he could let me have four back and I have six now. At present I am feeding them on crushed wheat . They are depastured all the winter. We always keep fowls and sell a few eggs locally. The wages we pay are £2 a week and keep, but labour is very hard to get. I have a boy just now with me who was on the goldfields. We generally work about 16 hours a day, but the men will not stand that. The minimum acreage that a man should have to make a decent living out of would be about 600 acres, but he would have to go in for mixed farming in the district, and to go in that property he would do a good deal better on a thousand acres .He should be able to handle 300 acres himself every year. I certainly think it would be an advantage if farmers would co-operate for the purchase of supplies and for the sales of their produce ,but it is difficult to pull them together with a team of bullocks.. The land regulations and conditions are in a sense, but when a bad season comes along the rent should stand over for a year or two to give a man a chance. If this were done ,it would be very helpful to the farmer and for any beginner there should be an exemption from rent for a number of years.

6409. To Mr. VENN: I have been running sheep since 1912. There are dingos in this country and they killed 70 sheep in two nights. In fact, a pack of them must have got in. Unfortunately, they were out in a stubble paddock at the time and I was camped alongside it. I use to see them every day, but unfortunately I was away for two nights and the damage was done. This is undoubtedly good sheep country. What poison there is is mostly brelia, but we have none of it . It is most dangerous when it is in flower. Some people call it kite leaf.

6410.To the CHAIRMAN: We have no school accommodation although there are a good many children in the district scattered about . Our nearest medical man is resident Moora.

6411. Do you consider your present holding a better venture than farming in Victoria, and are the chance of succeeding brighter here?— Yes, certainly, especially when you consider the cheapness of the land. After my seven years here I think it has been an up-hill game on account of the bad seasons, and I had a good crop. I had nothing in 1911 although there was feed for stock, and the same remark applied to 1914, but I reckon that stock is the main thing here. I think the prospects of the settlers generally in this district are fair enough; most them will struggle along and get through it.

6412. To Mr. CLARKSON: Within 10 miles of here I think there must be from 20 to 30 settlers, but there is a lot of poor country in between, and that is the reason why the settlers are so far apart . Of 10,000 acres the proportion of good country would not be more than from one-quarter to one-third. There is not very much poison, excepting in two or three places. Personally, I have not seen the heart-leaf poison. There is poison growing here resembling York Road, and when it is in flower in September you must be on your guard against it. I think it is quite advisable for the Government to further settlement in this district. The country is all right for a man with a little capital, but a man should not expect the Government to finance him from the very jump. With money to buy stock a man cannot go wrong. Everything on four legs gets fat here. It is good sheep and good cattle country.

6413. To MR. VENN: I reckon this good stock country, given a good water supply.

6414. By the CHAIRMAN : Supposing your property were improved and dingoes exterminated, how many sheep would you carry on 7,000 acres ?.— Two thousand sheep with safety, between three and four acres to the sheep. In a good season the forest would carry a sheep to the acre, and sheep will eat everything that grows on the sand plain. I would like to say that I consider the duty on jute goods should be removed.

6415. By Mr VENN: Are you affected by rabbits?.— Any number of them are now getting about, and I think they are going to be a menace here. There have always been a few rabbits about but now