with two children, who are too young for school. I have a bat house, a stable and machinery shed and a fully working plant, with the exception of a binder. I have seven working horses, 16 pigs, two cows and calves, but no sheep. When I started I had a capital of £70, and since then I have had assistance, partly from the Agricultural Bank, and a fixed mortgage with Mr. A. R. Richardson, of Lowlands. I am out of the Agricultural Bank now, but I owe £1,200 to Mr. Richardson. I also owe between £300 and £400, as against this year's crop. We have had a number of bad seasons here, and last year I had to get another £300 from Mr. Richardson over and above the £1,200. Then there is an old seed wheat board account for £98, and I have bills from the Lands Department for about £260. I am not under the Industries Assistance Board.

7877. By Mr. PAYNTER: What area do you crop?—We had 450 acres last year, but have only 300 acres this year. Last year I put less than a bushel in for seed and this year one bushel. On the sand plain I sow from 100lbs. to 120lbs. super. Seed for cropping purposes should be carefully looked after by the Agricultural Department. I grade my seed and pickle it, but my highest average yield to date has been nine bushels to the acre. I expect, however, 12 or 13 bushels this year. I use a three-furrow plough, and from four to fix horses, generally six horses, and I do from three to four acres a day. I have a 17-tyne cultivator, which does 10 acres a day, a 15 drill, which does 16 or 17 acres. I have not used harrows. With the 5th. Sunshine harvester I average seven acres a day. I believe in fallow, and usually plough four to five inches. I afterwards cultivate with an ordinary cultivator, sometimes twice before seeding, but I have no set rules. The matter is one of time and expense, In a generally way the price of machinery is very high indeed, on account of tariff, and other farm supplies are also abnormally high on account of the tariff. For two years I had no crop at all and the average to date works out at less than four bushels during my period on the farm. Bulk handling ought to reduce the cost, provided, of course, that the bags used will be of a better quality than those now in use. I have been informed that in Scotland the railway companies supply good strong bags with twine around the opening and that they are branded. I only employ a little labour for harvesting, but I have not paid more than 30s. a week and keep as wages. I do not think that a man can earn a decent living on less than 2,000 acres in this district, and working it by himself he ought to crop about 300 to 400 acres with one team. I do not think the price of the land is reasonable. In connection with the Repricing Bill before Parliament, we wrote to ask that the Jennaberring land should be repriced, but the reply we received was that it could not be done, inasmuch as the land was taken up prior to the year 1910, and that the land at the time had improvements upon it. Now that is not correct, according to their own litho, to which was attached a schedule showing the price of the land. the land rents press heavily upon us.

7878. Would a five years' exemption from land rent be a benefit to you?—Yes, because the bulk of the development is done within five years.

7879. By Mr. VENN: why do you not carry sheep?—In the year of the hailstorm I bought a few for fattening and I afterwards sold them, but finances have been against me since that time. I am, however, now expecting some down from the Murchison from my uncle, 170. So far as the future of the district is concerned, as the farmers get out of the development stage they will not have to incur so much expense, and I think, too, that the farmers are getting more experience. There are many of us who did not have the experience we should have had when we came here. My station experience has not been stood to me as yet for a reason that I have not been able to go in for sheep. On one occasion I got 365 wethers, which were stores that I intended to fatten. The railage on them from Fremantle ran into £22. Now that sum takes a big cut out of them. I consider that store stock should be sent up and returned by the railways as fats for one figure. The further we are away from Perth, the more we have to pay on stock, and that seems to me to be inequitable.

(The witness retired.)

——————————

CHARLES REUBEN GREEN, Llanelly Farm, Wamenusking, Quairading, sworn and examined:

7879a. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been settled here?—Six years. I hold 2,100 acres, priced at 10s., 15s., and 13s. Of this, 400 acres is first-class, priced at 13s., 500 acres at 10s., and 150 at 15s. There is no classification of the land, but I reckon 360 acres to be first-class. There is no sandplain, but there is 500 acres of scrub plain and mallee country, and the balance of 800 acres would be mixed. It is 14 miles from Badgering. I have 900 acres fenced and 700 cleared. My water supply is a permanent well in white gum and jam country. I am a married man with three children, the eldest of whom is six years of age. I have a hessian and iron house 31 feet by 27 feet, and eight-stall stable. A portion of my implements are under a shed; with the exception of a reaper and binder. I have a full set of implements, 10 working horses, two cows and calves, 30 pigs and some poultry. When I started I had £200 capital. I was previously a miner. I found it necessary to go to the Agricultural Bank, and I owe £325. To the I.A.B. I think I owe about £400, but I have not had a statement for the last six months. Those sums would cover all my liabilities.

7880. By Mr. PAYNTER: how many acres do you crop.—Three hundred acres annually. I use 90lbs. of super. and 30 to 60lbs. of seed to the acre. A selection of the varieties of seed is a system that I am in favour of, and it should undoubtedly be the work of a departmental expert to superintend it. The highest yield I have had was last year, 12 bushels, and this year it will be about the same. In 1913 I had 50 acres under crop, which yielded six bags. I takes 10 bushels to pay expenses of putting in and taking off a crop. I use the four-furrow McKay disc and eight horses, and can do four acres a day. I have also a 17-cultivator, which does 12 acres, and a 13-disc drill which does 13 acres a day. I use a T-bar roller. I generally cut eight or nine acres a day of hay with the binder. We harvest nine acres a day with two teams, using a State harvester. which I consider to be a satisfactory machine. I only work on fallow, and plough four to six inches in depth. I cultivate the light land several times. Bulk