7058. If you had sufficient land here, could you reduce your costs with larger machinery?—Yes, but even with larger machinery the difficulty is to get the crop off. Last year I put in 300 acres, but the thunderstorm took it all off. If I had a larger harvester I might have saved it, but 300 acres is a big job for a single man. I would not like to say anything about bulk handling as I have not decided on the point yet, but I think farmers' implements should be free of duty. My experience of wheat growing is that there is a great deal too much waste about it. The farmer is like butcher who buys his meat and throws away the tallow. I could feed sheep on the land which is only utilised by the horses at present. I cannot say whether wheat growing alone would pay me—it might or it might not, unless I had a run of good seasons.

7058A. If you cannot expect to finance yourself from this on, do you think that that is a good proposition for the State?—For the State to advance money to a wheat growing farmer is to throw away good money. The farmer must go in for a different system of farming altogether.

7059. To Mr. PAYNTER: Last year my crop was badly affected by rust and septoria. I pickle my wheat and run the grain through a winnower. I once grew rape but it was not quite a success. Nevertheless, it was good sheep feed. I have tried growing vines and fig trees and they do all right. I have had three pigs fed on wheat alone and the profit on them when I sell them will be £2 on the three. I have had 13 bushels to the acre and have made £2 pver and above the price of the feed, which I reckoned at 4s.

7060. by Mr. CLARKSON: Do you allow anything for your own labour?—No.

7061. By Mr. PAYNTER: Do you find poultry profitable?—The difficulty I have is that there is nobody at the homestead, and I lost a number of them from hawks, but there is no doubt that poultry are a good side-line. I employ no labour. In summer I start work at half-past five, and in winter I am up in the dark and I have my food in the dark, so I could average easily 12 hours a day. I consider that we have quite sufficient land at present, and 300 acres is enough for a man on his own to do justice to. No doubt co-operation would be an advantage, but the farmers are so scattered and when there is a meeting of them, only two or three turn up to it. I do not think the price of land is at all reasonable. When I came here a large proportion of my capital went in land rents for three of four years. In all future settlement the land should be free to the settler for a given number of years. My own indebtedness is largely arrears of rent, but the Government must have money. Nevertheless, they should reduce the arrears of rent. I have no stock, but if I could get a good water supply there would be no trouble in getting stock. Still, to do everything on one's own is impossible. I have the option of 100 or 150 sheep, but I never could take them on for want of water. A small matte rwhich indicates the direction in which the cost of production is increase is this small incident. I had to get a pinion wheel, and it cost me 11s. 9d. It cannot be worth more than 5s. at the most. I purchased it at the State Implement works, and it seems to me that either the wages of that institution are extortionate or else the cost of living of the men working the is far too high. I think, too, that the Chapman State Farm should undoubtedly go in for high-class stock from which the farmer can draw his supplies. It is absurd to expect the small farmer with, say, 150 ewes, to keep the same ram all the year round. The State Farm should possess good ewes, rams, horses, and other stock.

7062. By the CHAIRMAN: If you get a good water supply, can you make a success of farming?—I am quite confident of that after what I have gone through. After all, it is only the bad seasons that have upset me, but with a good water supply, taking the bad seasons with the good, I could still make a good success of it.

(The witness retired.)

JOHN JOSHUA MALDEN, Farmer, Sunderland, West Yuba, sworn and examined:

7063. To the CHAIRMAN: I came here in 1910, wand was previously farming 1,400 acres in England, comprised in four farms. I have been farming all my life. Here I hold 833 acres; 400 are first class and there is some poor sandplain and some mallee country, priced at 5s. an acre. There is half a mile cartage to the station. I have 400 acres cleared, all fenced and subdivided. I am a married man with one child give years old. There is a school three miles away, but of course he is too young to attend, but will go there later. I have four-roomed house with a verandah and a bathroom. I have a bush stable with a thatched roof and iron mangers. I have a shed 30 by 30, a chaffcutter, and implements. I have two dams adjacent to each other, the larger is 450 cubic yards and overflows into a covered dam. It has provided me with ample water up to now. I have all the necessary farming implements and seven working horses. I put in £1,100 capital when I started.

7064. To Mr. CLARKSON: I have 234 acres of crop, 65 acres was fallow. the previous year I had 160 acres of fallow. Last year I got on the fallowed land between seven and eight bushels. It stood four feet high, but the storm knocked it down. On the same piece of land I have been taking off between 15 and 16 bushels. This year my fallow is better than the other land, in some places 20 bushels and in other four bushels. I have not had more than 12 bushels average over the whole crop, and that was in 1912-13. This year it should average between 12 and 15. I consider the cost of putting and taking a crop off is about 30s., or about three bags to the acre. I know very little about bulk handling but I suppose we would have to bag our wheat and take it out of the bags at the station. If the industry is going to be any good, either the tariff will have to be removed from the farming implements or else the industry will have to be subsidised.

7065. To Mr. PAYNTER: Last year I had rust slightly and a little mildew. I believe the mildew was the cause of rust. I always pickle my wheat but do not grade it. I would like to grow a crop of tares and Japanese millet, but have not tried any so far. We have thin sandplain growing about four or five bushels of wheat. I want something to grow on it. I have a lemon tree, but my other fruit trees have died off. They would do well if they were watered, but one has not always the time. I have never kept pigs here, but I have a large number of fowls, and they are more or less a nuisance.