CECIL MANSFIELD COOK, Farmer, Kondinin, sworn and examined:

8218. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in this district?-- Since 1911. I had 13 years experience of mallee in Victoria. Originally, I was an insurance clerk. I have 1,300 acres, two-thirds of which is first class land and the balance good second class. I got 16 bushels off it. I am now paying 14s. and 12s. 6d. for my blocks, which are four-and a-half miles from the railway. I have 90 acres fenced, 300 cleared. My water supply is a pot hole at the foot of a rock. I have to cart a great deal. I am not a married man and I have stables, but no horses and no shed, a set of implements, five working horses, one light horse, two pigs. I had £400 capital and borrowed from the Agricultural Bank £350; £300 would cover my indebtedness to the Industries Assistance Board and all my liabilities. I have 270 acres with crop averaging 11½ bushels.

8219. By Mr. PAYNTER: How much of that was fallow?-- Eighty acres. I plough from three to four inches. Fallowed land gave me 11 bushels. Alongside I cultivated Lott's for 16 bushels. Early wheats are the most desirable here. On my 16 bushel crop, I sowed 36 pounds of seed to the acre and 42 pounds of super. To put in and take off a crop doing all one's own work, would cost about 12s. That is ploughing 6s., and a similar amount for taking it off. To put in and take off with super, seed, bags, repairs, breakages, rent, interest and rations, would amount to about £1. the tariff affects us very injuriously and with free trade we would get our machinery in cheaper. Bulk handling would benefit the farmer and enable him to do away with bags, which we have to buy and pay for and give away. I pickle, but do not grade my wheat. I have never tried growing vegetables. I employ a lad at 15s. a week. The minimum area that a man should hold in this district is 2,000 acres, and he should have 600 acre of land cleared before he is warranted in procuring implements and horses. A man should crop with a little help at harvest time up to 300 acres. I myself do 270, others do 300, but I think 230 would be a fair thing. The land conditions, speaking generally, are all right, but we were not worried for our rent in Victoria and we should not be worried here, as we have not yet got on our legs. Anyone who could not make farming pay here will never make it pay anywhere else. It cost 30s. an acre to clear land.

8220. By Mr. VENN: Are rabbits troublesome here?-- I think they will be a very serious menace. I have lost from 150 to 250 bags of wheat through them. They are burrowing on the sand plain, and they are coming off the unoccupied holdings. We will do better when we get into mixed farming. I would like to make a statement to the effect I incurred an expense for stud fees on the authority of a circular from the I.A.B. guaranteeing same. The I.A.B. now repudiate their circular and will not pay the fees. I got the loan of a plough from Mr. Rankin and sent it to Narrogin to get it repaired and forwarded the account to the Industries Assistance Board, but they turned it down. It shows on my statement that they will not pay. I am referring to last year. (The witness retired.) _________________

JOHN HARRISON LYNN, Bendering via Kondinin, Farmer, sworn and examined:

8221. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in this district?-- Since 1910. I was the first settler at Bendering. I have been all my life farming in Canada, United States and England, and have been pioneering all the time. I hold 1,000 acres of land. I think the Government here helps more liberally than elsewhere. The climate is better but the soil is not half as good as elsewhere, while everything is twice the price and the produce we sell we do not get as much for. I have 900 acres of first class land which cost 21s., but the price has been reduced, I think to 13s. 6d. It is nine miles from the railway; no fencing has been done it; 326 acres are cleared. I have 1,000 yard dam just completed, eight feet deep. The rain stopped the contractor from going deeper. I have a son at the Front and two small children at home aged respectively eight and five years. There is no school and they are the only children in Bendering. I have a hessian and iron four-roomed house, bush stables, no shed. I had £300 capital when I came here and borrowed £585 from the Agricultural Bank. I think I owe the Industries Assistance Board £400. I have 225 acres of crop averaging 12 bushels, a set of implements, five working horses, two cows, one heifer, a young bull, a few pigs and poultry.

8222. By Mr. PAYNTER: How much of your crop was fallow?-- None of it. I use Lott's, Federation, Gluyas and a little Bunyip. I use 40lbs. of seed and 56lbs. of super to the acre. Seeing that we sell in the world's markets, I would have free traders in the Empire if I had my way. I have had experience in bulk handling in Canada, and it is a great success there, but I doubt if it would be here. There, every siding possessed elevators but in California the farmers use 100lb.-bags, and if bulk handling was a good thing on the Pacific coast they would have had it installed but they have not. Water and railway facilities are badly wanted and a good iron shed here in which to store our crop. Where you thresh your wheat it is different. In Washington, Oregon and California settlers farm similarly to here. There is no disease here though I have a good garden every winter. I planted an orchard last year but my hands were full at the time and the rabbits ate everything down to the ground. The minimum quantity of land that a man should hold here is 1,000 acres and he should crop with a little help at harvest time 300 acres himself. I cannot get help and have to sew my own bags while my horses are idle, but I think it is the best agricultural land in the world. As far as co-operation is concerned I have not found two farmers ever think alike, and co-operation pre-supposes that you must all be made in the same mould. If we could get wire, water, and stock we would be in a fair way. I like this country better than California because I am British, although California is said to be the best climate in the world.

8223. By Mr. VENN: Are rabbits very bad?-- Yes, they took off all round the outside of my crop. I have bush all round me. It is good grass country and my cow does well on it. We are growing wheat all the year round and yet we cannot get bran and pollard for ourselves and at Narrogin you have to give half your grain to get it crushed.