Scrubby hills. Eight hundred and fifty-eight acres are cleared and sheep-proof fenced. I am a married man with five children and three of them are of school age. They attend school three and a half miles away. My house is a lean-to of jarrah and iron with two large and three rooms, a six-stall stable and chaff-house, but the implement shed is not quite finished. There are three good wells, but in one of them the supply is irregular. I have a full set of implement, 10 heavy and medium draught horses and four light horse. I have 650 sheep and lambs, seven cows and calves. when I took up the country I had about £1,100, but have had to get assistance From the Agricultural Bank, Approximately £800, and also from the I . A. B At the Wind-up of last year we were behind with the rent to the extent of £450 and on other accounts to about £39, but since then there has been the 6d. advance, which would reduce it by about £50. This year we have had £12 a month from March and also super, in all about £600, then there would be another six month rent, £700. Outside of that we own about £1,100, of which nearly £300 was a disastrous sale of wheat. This year I have 410 acres cropped, and 220 acres was fallow. I believe in fallowing. I am a great believe in sheep. Last year I was able to get them. I have tried to finish the seeding at the end of June. We then have the whole of July and August for fallow. This years we had fallowed 345 acres, but will not be cropping more than 400. That fallow is ready now. The grass that came up we kept for sheep. They keep it clean and act like a cultivator on the land. The action of the sheep's' feet in keeping land in good nick is simply marvellous. Then, we only cultivate in front of the drill. 6964. What do you consider to be the increase from fallow as against other methods?—So much depends on the season. the crop is going over seven bags; it is Yandilla King. We finished a paddock of comeback that was dry-ploughed, and It went seven bags. Yandilla King is the best wheat for this district, but it needs a full year. My neighbours finished in August, and are getting two bags of comeback. Fallow lest you in early. The highest yield I have had was 15 bushels in 1911-12 and 1912-13, my firs two years. The next year averaged six bushels, but this year we should have 18 bushels. It takes 11 or 12 bushels per acre to pay expenses, say 35s. to put it in and take it off, according to the ground. I sow 50 1bs. of Yandilla King to the acre and full bushel or a shade more of comeback. Ninety 1bs. of super suits our land, which is jam and wattle. So far I have fallowed about four or five inches deep. We started with a four-disc McKay Sunshine, but have since used a 10-disc Shearer. which is undoubtedly the finest implement on the market for our country. We can do 10 acres a day with it. We have a 15-Coulter drill. with a good straight furrow we can do about 18 acres. I have a reaper-thresher and a Sunshine harvester. They are very satisfactory. I cannot tell exactly what the reaper- thresher will do. The reaper-thresher is lighter on the horses, and we do not find that it loses much wheat. 6965. Would the selection of those wheats which seem to do particular districts tend to increase the average yield?—Certainly. 6966.Would the use of the largest possible Machinery reduce your costs?—If we had not got the 10-disc Shearer plough we could not have done what we have this season. 6967. To Mr PAYNTER: I think the selection of seed is largely the work of the farmer. We got some seed from the Chapman State Farm-about three bags of it, and seeded 10 acres. There was radish in it. The farmer knows which crops are good and clean. Then he should bespeak his seed wheat.

6968.To Mr CLARKSON: Bulk handling ought to reduce costs, but the details of the Question I have not considered. I should think, However, that we would have to rig up a tank on a wagon to convey the grain to the siding, and it would have to be carted as it was harvested. I have not gone deeply into the question of the tariff, but implements should certainly not pay duty, and we know well that the sunshine is sold elsewhere for half the prices that we have pay for it, and if there is any loss we are

the people who have to pay it. Nearly every man is farming his own holding and our methods of farming are gradually improving, but no rents should be charged for the first five years to any, famer weather he is on repurchased land or ordinary Crown land. It must be remembered that the life is not attractive to the man with means and so farming is left to the struggler, and after he is settled and flourishes the man with means comes along, " The city settler" My crops suffered from rust last year and this year the rust is threatening, but even with Yandilla King is was beginning. However, it did not rain for a month and that killed all possibility of rust. I believe in grading my wheat, but so far as fodder crops are concerned I have experimented only with peas, and although the season was not favourable yet they were payable. I have half an acre of oranges which are doing well, but of course, they take time to mature. We keep fowls for our own use. My two sons and I have done all the work of the farm. when I have to put on a man I pay him 35s. a week and keep. I pay my son £1 a week, and our hours of labour are from daylight to dark, say about 10 hours of day. No man should have less than 1,000 acres of land, an he should be able to do 200 acres well himself. It would be a good thing if there was co- operation among the settlers for the purchase of supplies and the marketing of produce. They  are trying to apply the principle at the present time under the auspices of the farmers' and settlers' Association, and we have a good branch of that body in Geraldton. I do not consider that the present land laws would encourage people to take up land. They might do  so if the first five years occupancy was free of rent. You must get absolutely elementary facts and you have any own figures to show that so far we have not been able to pay our way.

6969.By Mr VENN: But the sheep pay?—Yes, I should put my carrying capacity down to one sheep to three acres, and I consider that the Corriedale will be the best for this district. We want to get away from the Merino, and the best of all would be the Lincoln merino cross with a Corriedale ram. I have sent away good cross-bred lambs that would go from 331bs. upwards. Last year in November I bought 377 lambs at 11s. and put them on the ordinary feed. We started to sell them in April and dis