much. I will get more than 1,000 bags of wheat and a few hundred bags of oats and barley this season.

(The witness retired.)

_________________

ALLAN JOHN LOGAN, Farmer, Alma, sworn and examined:

7099. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been settled here for eight years, and have had no previous experience of farming. I was an iron moulder. I have 430 acres, principally freehold; 320 acres are freehold and 110 Conditional Purchase. I have 200 acres of leasehold, with the right purchase, and am 3½ miles from the railway. Of the 430 acres, 200 acres are cleared. It is ringfenced and subdivided into six paddocks. I am a married man with six children, four of whom go to school. I have a four-roomed wood and iron house. I have stables and implement shed, and a man's house. I have three wells with a quantity of stock water, but not sufficient for irrigation. I have a set of implements, five working horses, 200 sheep, 13 pigs, five milking cows, and eight others. I put £500 into it, and found it necessary to borrow from the National Bank about £500, and my other liabilities are about £100.

7100. To Mr. CLARKSON: I have 150 acres in crop, 80 of which are fallow, and they are far better than the others. I have always had fallow, and as a rule it yields five bushels per acre more than the other. The highest average yield I had was four years ago—20 bushels over 150 acres. I expect 12 bushels this year, and it takes 10 bushels to pay expenses. Some of the settlers in this district are good farmers, while others only scratch their crops in. I do not think there is as much fallow as there should be. Folks try to put too much crop in and the fallow is cut short accordingly. Federation is the best wheat here if the conditions are favourable. Currawa has not been tried until this year, and it has not yet been stripped. I use a three-furrow mouldboard, and do four acres a day. With a 13 drill I do 12 acres. My International harvester will average five acres a day. It is a 5ft. comb. My plough is too small. I could have done with a 6ft. harvester instead of a 5ft., but other people with larger farms use the reaper-thresher. A larger plant would reduce the working cost, and so would bulk handling. Farmers' machinery should come in free of duty.

7101. To Mr. PAYNTER: Last year I had blight in my crop, and we had plenty of rust this year. Up to this year I pickled my wheat, but not this year, and I graded it through a winnower. I have not tried fodder crops or artificial grasses, but fruit and vegetables do well, and I am going in for pigs. All my poultry are profitable. I employ one youth at 15s. a week. For mixed farming in this district a man should have 600 or 700 acres. A man could manage 200 acres of crop and fallow for wheat growing himself. With a team one man should do 200 acres every year. The price of the land is too high, 10s. an acre is ample, but the other conditions seem to be all right.

7102. To Mr. VENN: Cows milk fairly well considering the treatment the get. Out of five cows that I have, three are heifers, and we were making 32lbs. of butter a week and supplying milk three mornings a week to the mine, besides keeping the family supplied. Cows are far better than wheat here, and sheep pay handsomely. I carry 200 sheep with lambs included. They are merinos. I think of going in for cross-breds for the lamb trade. You can get a quicker return, as the wool is not the thing for a man to rely solely upon. I imagine the high prices will continue for some time to come. There are rabbits here, but we never see them or suffer any damage from them.

7103. To the CHAIRMAN: The men who have secured the repurchased estate land seem to have a terrible struggle with the rents they have to pay. None of the land in this district should be priced higher than 10s. In fact, the Government should give the land to the people.

7104. To Mr. CLARKSON: Certainly the repurchased land should not be more than 10s. Why should I pay 10s. an acre, and my neighbour 30s. an acre for the same or inferior land? It must also be remembered that a lot of the Oakbella and Bowes land is very rough indeed.

7105. You consider that the Government paid more for it than it was worth?—Yes.

7106. And the people who bought are those who suffer?—Yes.

7107. By the CHAIRMAN: What is your opinion of the future of the district?—Excellent, provided that we get fair treatment and not too much of the pooling scheme. The average of the district should be 16 or 17 bushels, and then it should be mixed with other things. Wheat alone is too big a gamble.

7108. To Mr. VENN: If we are going to raise pigs we must have a bacon factory at Geraldton, because we are too far from the market in Perth. In summer I do not think you could ship them to Perth on account of the heat. It costs 3s. a head to send sheep to Perth as it is, that is inclusive of railage and selling charges. It has been done for a little less, but it is risky shipping any stock in summer time, and the rate at which they travel down only averages about five miles an hour. I wrote to the Railway Department about it.

(The witness retired.)

________________

JAMES MAGEE, Farmer, Weine, Northampton, sworn and examined:

7109. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been here for eight or nine years, and had no previous experience of farming; I was a storekeeper. My wife and I hold 3,000 acres of C.P. at prices ranging from 5s. 9d. to 10s. Nine hundred acres are first class cultivable land situated seven miles from Baddera and 11 miles from Northampton. There are 900 acres cleared and it is all fenced and divided into 16 paddocks. There is a pretty good water supply now. I have wells and four windmills, but after clearing I find that I get more water supply. I am married and have four children. They cannot attend school as it is five miles to the Alma school. I do not see any prospect of improving the position as there are not enough settlers to make up the minimum number of eight children required, and I am the furthest out. I have a four-roomed iron house, stable and implement shed, a full set of farming tools, 25 working horses, and 1,400 to 1,500 sheep. I bought 400 last week. I have also 12 head of cattle and two pigs. I put between £8,000 and £9,000 into the property.