MONDAY, 27TH NOVEMBER, 1916. (At Morawa.)

Present: J. O. Giles, Esq. (Chairman), B. L. Clarkson., | H. H. Paynter, Esq., F. E. Venn Esq.

ERIC SASSE, Farmer, Morawa, sworn and examined:

6565. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been here five years. Previous to that I worked on a Narrogin farm for six months, then I was 18 months at Greenough and Three Spring. I hold 920 acres, about 400 of which is forest. The balance is scrub, which might grow oats. The present price is 12s. 6d., and it adjoins the railway. I have cleared 300 acres. It is all fenced and subdivided into paddocks, but my water supply is poor, consisting of a dry well, and my dam only keep me going during the winter. At the present time I am carting from the Government well. I am a single man, and I have an iron hessian camp, bush stable, and no machinery shed. I have a plant that is practically complete with six working horses, two light horses and a foal. My capital when I came here was £350, and the Agricultural Bank advanced me £480. I think I owe the Industries Assistance Board about £450. That should cover all my indebtedness.

6566. To Mr. CLARKSON: I have 260 acres under crop but no fallow. I have had no experience of fallow except by observation, and I do not think fallow is of great advantage without you have a depth of soil. In the York gum country there is about two feet of loam with a cement subsoil. Where the land is fallowed crops grow very rankly. When the dry spell of heat occurred in September the fallow was the first to go. This year we shall have a fair crop, but without depth of soil and subsoil fallow is no use to conserve moisture. We can work the land better wet than dry, and this should be done in winter. Where there is depth of soil no doubt fallow would be an advantage. In places the soil is of good depth, but in a number of cases the soil is only 18 inches or two feet in depth, and that fact should be taken into consideration by the classifiers when classifying the land. Whilst the land is turned up there is nothing to break the mulch.

6567. About three years ago Mr. Sutton told us that there was no use in fallowing unless you had depth of soil, but that it would improve the physical qualities of the soil. My object is to grow a thin crop and a well headed one. I sow 45lbs. of seed on the light land and up to 80lbs. of super. On the heavy land I put 45lbs. of super. I sow up to the bushel on light land. The highest average yield has been 13 bushels on two occasions. That was in years 1913 and 1915. This year it will go about 14 bushels. By the time I got wages for myself out of the crop I think it should go about five bags. In some circumstances by scratching in the crop you could make it pay on eight to ten bushels. I put in a crop with a disc cultivator. I use a Deering plough with five horses and can do with that 10 acres a day. I have a 13-disc drill which does about 10 or 11 acres, and a Massey-Harris harvester which does five acres. I do not know enough about bulk handling to say what its advantages would be to us, but I consider that the tariff bears unjustly to the farmer, whose machinery should come in free of duty.

6568. Do you think that if your liabilities were funded and you were given 10 years to repay them in you could carry on for the future?—Yes, as long as I had the funds to finance the first year's operations I think I could, and in fact, I would prefer that to the present scheme.

6569. To Mr. PAYNTER: I have had no disease in my crops. Some of the early wheat I pickle but not the Federation. I have had no opportunity as yet of growing fodder crops, but I have grown a few cabbages and I have one or two pigs for my own use as well as poultry. The rate of wages here is £2 a week and keep, and I have had very satisfactory labour at that price. A man here should have at least 600 acres of first class land and 1,000 acres of sandplain, or 100 acres of first class land. Under the fallowing system the most a man might be expected to do himself would be 250 acres. Undoubtedly there should be co-operation among farmers and I think the principle should be introduced into all the farming districts. In this locality, generally speaking, farmers work well together. I do not think the present land laws are advantageous to the State. The new settler has need of all the money he can lay hands on to improve his land. In my own case I have paid £120 away in rent, but it would have been more profitable to me if that amount had been