three months working outside, but I could not keep it up. In 1914 I had an absolute failure. I really started again where I am now, without a penny. My partner and I had 5,000 acres. I took 1,000 acres of it and he took the rest. If I had a 10 bushel crop this year, I would have cleared myself. Mr. C. T. Jones of Barrack street and Mr. W. T. Stead of the Midland Railway are neighbours of mine and have had failures.

7946. Do you find the railway Freight heavy ? - I do not think they affect us very much, though, of course, it does affect the price of machinery. In the first stages of farming it is very rough on us and no matter what the machines are they want renewing every three years. We have to pay an exorbitant price for machinery and it is a great burden upon us at present.

                                                             -----------------------

ALFRED BUTCHE, Farmer, Bruce Rock, sworn and examined :

7947. By the chairman : How long have you been here ? - I have been seven years in this district. My previous experience was on an orchard in the South West. I had a lease here before the land was cut up for sale and ran a few sheep. I hold 1,800 acres in my own name, taken up before the land was classified. Nine hundred acres are first class and the balance second, with a small proportion of third. The purchase price was 10s. and it is situated on the railway. It is all fenced and 900 acres cleared. My water supply consists of a splendid soak, which is permanent. I am a married man with six children, three of whom are with me. My house is of stone, 5 rooms. I have an eight stall stable and a shed for machinery in the course of erection. I have a full set of implements, eight working horses, 600 sheep, a cow and a pig. My capital was £350 in debt when I took this land up. I owe the Agricultural Bank about £1,300 and I am on the Industries Assistance Board for a small amount, against which there is a contra. I have an overdraft of £400 in the W. A. Bank. All my machinery and phosphates are paid for. I put in 470 acres of crop. The Agricultural Department have given me no assistance to my knowledge, either in regard to advice as to methods of cultivation, the seed to sow, and so on. I have seen nothing of its experts, but perhaps that might be my own fault. I have not made any inquiries of them, nor they of me.

7948. By Mr. PAYNTER : How much fallow have you ? - Last year we fallowed about 65 acres and 20 acres for rape. The rest got too dry but you could not call it fallow. I plough about 4ins. I use one bushel of seed to the acre and 56 to 80 lbs. of super. Twelve bushels was the highest average yield in 1913 ; last year and this year are about the same. We have Gluyas, Federation and Correll's. From my own experience I should say the farmer should select his own seed. We have always had stock here and consider that more than half our returns is derived from that source. I am satisfied there will be no successful farmers here until they have mixed farming. We have managed to battle along and pay our way. We are a little behind but not a great deal. I cannot say how much it costs to put in and take off a crop. I have a six furrow disc plough and six horses with which I do five acres a day, a 30 tyne cultivator which does 20 acres, and a 17 drill which does about the same. I do not use harrows. My son averaged, with binder, about 10 acres a day. We have a 7 ft . Sunshine harvester which does 10 acres a day. Larger implements may reduce costs in other places but not with us. To make a decent thing of our small area, we have cut our crop down to 300 acres for next year. We have owned the place since 1908 and that was a bad year, and so were 1911 and 1914. We are preparing for a bad season next year. If we are not going to get a crop we are not going to throw seed and super, away. I am of opinion that we can farm 500 acres by fallowing 250, putting in 250 fallowed last year, and so good, if not a better crop if it is fallowed the previous year, by working it up. We have done that on two or three occasions. I think the tariff is most excessive and there is a vast difference between the cost of the manufacture of the implement and the landed cost on the farm. It does not strike me that the wheat freight is excessive but now we have a rise in the cost of phosphate. I think bulk handling is the thing that is required, as bags are so costly. My case, however, may not apply to others. If bulk handling came in I should have two ordinary trolleys and put the wheat into them straight from the harvester. Then it could be shot into a bin and elevated in my crops except white tips. Federation gives the best yield but is subject to that defect. We suffered from smut very badly one year. I pickle the wheat but do not believe in artificial grasses here with the exception of Lucerne, mangels and silver beet. We sowed 1lb. of Lucerne seed to the acre and stripped a crop of 40 acres, but it all died off. As soon as we stripped the wheat a thunderstorm visited us and in a few days the Lucerne was up 3ins. high. We cut the stubble for straw. The sheep fed the Lucerne bare, but we got three feedings off during the summer, so it would be profitable to grow Lucerne. The country is well suited to mangels. To go in for a paddock of grass I do not know anything that would be any good here. My two boys and myself do all our work. No man in this district should have less than 2,000 acres, and the maximum a man should crop annually, all fallow, would be about 300 acres. Co operation among farmers for the purchase of supplies would be a good thing if they co - operated on the right lines. The difficulty is to bring farmers together. I am against the way the land was priced here. A man without money should not go in for machinery or horses for at least three years, and the Government should appoint an inspector to advise settlers how to manage sheep and farming generally. Land rents should not exceed 10s. and there should be exemption for five years after after survey. Land is no asset to the State in its rough condition. The Government should be sure to give a man a good chance of making a good living. If a man starts at the bottom of the ladder it is better for himself and for the State. Those here who have not made headway hitherto will not succeed until mixed farming is adopted. This country is no use at all until it is improved. Under selection before survey the people took out the best of the land. I do not think that 20s an acre which is charged for some if it is all fair. Clearing costs 25s. an acre.