Hedges laid poison on his property and as a result picked up 1,000 dead rabbits. In the district there are good blocks which are not being worked and big reserves which form breeding places for both dingoes and rabbits. I should have gone in for sheep long ago, but I was unable to procure netting. I may say that I am here to stay. We have only £11 per month from the board to live on and there are eight of us in the family. for six months we had no fresh beef, mutton or pork. The drought is the cause of it.

                                                                                   (The witness retired.)

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JOHN LYONS, Farmer, East Kuminin. Sworn and examined: 8054. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been here?—Five years. I have been all my life farming, principally in Victoria, at St. Arnaud. I hold 970 acres, 700 acres are first class and the balance second class. The original price was 21s. an acre, since reduced to 15s. It is situated 22 miles from the Bruce Rock station and between four and five miles from the Dump. I have one mile of fencing on the property and 400 acres cleared. I have no water supply. We have a dam of 750 cubic yards in extent and eight feet deep, but it is quite dry. I had to put six inches of pug in her to make her hold. I am a married man with eight children, three of them starting school next week. The school-house is three and a half miles distant. My house is hessian and iron. there are bush stables, but no machinery shed. I have a set of implements, three working horses three foals. a cow and 15 pigs. I had £150 capital when I started. I borrowed £500 from the Agricultural Bank. This crop should make me clear of the Industries Assistance Board. I should have something to draw, in fact. I have 350 acres cropped, averaging between nine and 10 bushels. Last year it went 15 bushels. We had imperial in, but the dry season spoilt it.

8055. By Mr. PAYNTER: Do you believe in fallow?—Yes, I sow one bushel of seed and 60lbs. of super. to the acre. I also had Gluyas, Newman's early and Cumberland. Newman's Early is the best, I think. I have an 8-disc State plough. We had six horses last year and by going shallow did six acres a day. We have a 22-Massey-Harris cultivator which does 12 acres, a 17-disc drill which does 14 acres. we have no harrows and no binder. I use a 6ft. harvest which does 9 acres a day. There was blight last year in the Imperial. Pigs are handy for one's own use. I feed them. I have two sons. A man should have at least 1,000 acres in this district to make a living and ought to be able to do 250 acres by himself annually. I think the conditions of land are easy.

8056. by Mr. VENN: Are rabbits on the increase?—Yes, I do not think they will be difficult to keep down as there is no water for them. Then they do not last long on the goldfields, for the same reason. I have only one son working with me at the present time. My sons have taken up land for themselves, so I will have to get labour later on. There are dingoes about, and some half-bred dingoes which are worse than the real thing.

WILLIAM CAIRNS, Farmer, East Kuminin, Secretary Farmers' and Settlers' Association, sworn and examined:

8059. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in this district?—six years. I had a general knowledge of farming as applied in the Old Country. My father and I own 2,000 acres of land and all of it, except 150 acres of morrell, is first class. It is 25 miles from Bruce Rock and when the new railway is completed we will be just on it. One block cost 14s. 5d. and the other 8s. 6d. The former is first Class land and the latter is half scrub land. I have 1,000 acres cleared, and between 500 and 600 acres of the best is included in that. Our water supply consists of two small dams about 300 cubic yards each, which are now dry. The bank only allows for a 1,000-yard dam, and the tractors will not go below 8ft. I am a single man. There is a house on the property and bush stables but no sheds. We have two sets of implements, 14 working horses, some foals and pigs. We had over £2,000 of our own money when we came here. We have 700 acres under crop averaging between nine and 10 bushels.

8060. By Mr. PAYNTER: How much of that was fallow?—None. Nevertheless I believe in fallow, but at the end of the drought year we did not have enough horse feed to do any fallowing in 1915. We use 40lbs. to 80lbs. of seed to the acres and 60lbs. of super., while on the scrub we apply 120lbs. We have had the best results from Gluyas. The highest yield was 26 bushels, in the year 1915. Our four-furrow plough with six horses does four acres a day. The 22-tyne cultivator does 15, a 15-drill does 10 acres on forest land and 12 acres on the other. The binder does from eight to 10 acres. We have a sunshine harvester as well as a Shearer, which do about 16 acres each. No doubt the employment of larger teams and plant are good to a certain extent. In drilling and harvesting, the bigger the machines the more ground you can do. So far as the tariff is concerned there is far too much duty charged to the farmer and the industry will not stand it. We must have 14 bushels to pay expenses of putting in and taking off a crop. Bulk handling would tend to reduce costs of farming and it would mean a big change in the alteration of all the harvest machinery.

8061. It has been suggested that the system could be carried out with strong bags?—It would be better to go back to the thresher. Five men could work the