best methods of handling it. They have up to date machinery here. In my opinion if some men cultivated small areas they would get more per acre in return.

7385. Have you taken any note of the results of fallow hereabout? —Fallow is undoubtedly necessary. One period of fallow is from the time they finish the season. If we have wet July the farmer loses a lot of time, because his horses bog. If he ploughs after the rainfall is finished it is not fallow, it is dry ploughing. So the period for fallow is very short. the farmer cannot possibly fallow enough to see him through next year's cropping, and he depends a great deal on dry ploughing. As a rule they keep their machinery covered.

7386. By Mr PAYNTER: Are there farmers here who have made a success from wheat-growing exclusively? —No, it is a bare tucker job.

7387. By Mr CLARKSON: Do you know how much per acre it costs to put in and take off a crop? —No, but it is generally recognised that mixed farming would be a success here, as the mixed farmer is in a better position. A lot of these areas are run on the share system. The landlord provides the land only as far as I know. The usual thing is for one-fourth share. The landlord would have to find bags for his own quarter share, I suppose.

7388. Do you know definitely that that is the case, that the owner gets a quarter share? —As a rule the owner finds the land and some super. and also the seed? I know cases where it is not so, but there may be individual cases where it is so. It would only apply to super. The landlord gets the stubble also; so the farmer cannot run a few sheep of his own for profit, though he may be allowed to do so by courtesy.

7389. By the CHAIRMAN: Has the Industries Assistance Board cone to your assistance? What has been the experience here? —I would rather not speak on that subject. You had better question Mr Strempel, the bank manager; he has full details. As a business man, I do not run farmers' accounts I do not advance any stores on the chance of being paid when the farmer gets his crop. So I have not become entangled with the Industries Assistance Board. My knowledge is from what I have read of that institution in the papers.

7390. Does the wheat-growing settlement reach eastwards?—No, not further than Stokes's farm. I do not think he has done too well up to date, owing to the bad seasons. Beyond that is the mulga country, which is too far east. When I came here first it was said that this country would not grow wheat. There was a bit of a boom when the Midland Company's land was taken up. Of late years when the seasons became indifferent, it was found not to be a wheat-growing country. This is essentially a pastoral country.

7391. Do you think Yandanooka a wheat-growing country? —No, not from a closer settlement point of view. The difficulty there is to water it. If you cut land up into areas for closer settlement there is no way of watering each block. You cannot depend upon dams for horses and stock. because one dry season would exhaust them.

7392. Did the Government develop Yandanooka for sale and cut it up? —Yes. 7393. Have you any idea how the prices compared with the price they paid for it? —I cannot say. It was cut up into different blocks by different valuers, but with some first class and second class land. I would be thankful to sell what I had at the same price, already cleared for the plough. Two or three block were sold to people settled in that portion of the district who wished to square their blocks, otherwise it was not a financial proposition.

7394. The average yield has been 14 bushels; is not that an attraction spread over 15 years? —If you produce a 14-bushel average and pay one-fourth for rent, could you live on the balance after paying the expenses of the farm?

7395. By Mr CLARKSON: Those people who are farming on shares are a small proportion of those settled here? —A 14-bushel yield, unless you get a good price, is only a bare living, and leaves no profit at the end of the year.

7396. There must be then a large proportion of the rest of the State starving? —I am just giving my opinion of it. When I say it is not a payable proposition I take it by the position most of the farmers are in. If it is a paying proposition, how is it they are not in a better position?

7397. Because a great many of them do not get 14 bushels? —Quite likely I have exceeded the estimate. Farmers have told me 14 bushels only pays the expenses.

7398. But the average of the State is only about 11 bushels? —I do not know it. But very few farmers keep more than a cheque book, and he will not do clerical work after doing a day's work in the field. Farmers for the last ten years have been under heavy expenses for machinery. I seem to me that when a man has finished paying for his machine there is some other machine put on the market that he must have and he starts paying for that, too, so that a fair proportion of his crop goes to pay for machinery bills every year.

7399. What is your opinion of the tariff? —A farmer should not have to pay it on his implements if it can be avoided. They do not complain of taxation, but I maintain that unless the conditions of farming are made easier they will be decadent and will be more so as the years go by.

7400. You have not a branch of the Farmers and Settlers' Association here. They are complaining of the duties of 25 per cent. and 30 per cent. which is taken to pay the wages of men in Victoria? —When Western Australia produced their own machinery they were no cheaper than the imported article considering the durability of the machine.

7401. Harvesters are sold in Argentine for less than we pay for them here? —The farmer must pay the market price always.

7401a. When the duty was put on, the manufacturer took advantage of the tariff and put the price on his machinery which he sent to other countries and disposed of them at a lower price than he got here? —No doubt that is the fact.

7402. By Mr PAYNTER: What do you think of the land laws? Could they be improved upon? —I think they are remarkably reasonable, but the land here was taken up by private individuals from the Midland Railway Company.

7403. By the CHAIRMAN: What was the price paid for the sand-plain? —From 3s. 9d. to 6s., and it was all sold.