out three tractors in three months, they could plough all this district for about 3s. an acre.

8238. By the CHAIRMAN: There is no tractor yet invented that will do it. At Roseworthy, in South Australia, they had a test, but the machines were disqualified by the farmers.

(The witness retired.) _________________

ARTHUR HOWARD CLARKE, Farmer, Kulin, sworn and examined:

8239. By the CHAIRMAN: When did you first come to this district?-- In 1912. I was previously a miner. I hold 1,833 acres; 700 acres are first class. The balance is mallee and a little third class land. One thousand acres cost 10s., 833 acres cost 13s. 6d., and adjoined the railway. I have 57 acres in a paddock; 475 acres are cleared. My water supply is two dams, eight feet six inches deep, each 800 cubic yards. The department is quite wrong in restricting us to dams of 1,000 yards capacity. I shall be carting 12 miles to keep my horses alive in a day or two. There is no bottom to the clay as far as we have gone. I am a married man and have a five-roomed camp, roofed with iron, lined with hessian and super bags for the outside. I have no working horses, pigs, poultry and a goat. My capital was £1,700 when I started, including what my partner put in. I borrowed £430 from the Agricultural Bank, and owe about £500 to the Industries Assistance Board. I have 435 acres of crop, averaging seven bushels. The poor yield is dude to the six weeks' drought in September and beginning of October, and part of the crop was in too late. It was finished in July.

8240. By Mr. PAYNTER: How much of your crop was fallow?-- I had no fallow, and I could not get the fodder out of the Industries Assistance Board to fallow with. I cut plenty of hay in 1915 to see me through. It was up to five feet high and the horses would not eat it. I asked for a chaff-cutter six weeks afterwards. Horses will not eat it until it is chaffed. Any farmer will tell you that. I have got on well with Steinweidel and sow a bushel to the acre and about 50lbs. of super. The first year I got an average of 10 bushels to the acre. The tariff is at the bottom of the whole difficulty. The producer has to pay the lot. I favour a revenue tariff. I am not competent to give an opinion on the matter, but it stands to reason that bulk handling must be beneficial. I have had no disease, except a little smut, but my wheat has always been passed as f.a.q. The nearest to disease that I have had was what was called blighting and that was particularly where the ground was rich. I pickle, but do not grade the wheat. My son assists me. Sheep are an absolute necessity and a man should have 2,000 acres of land, but to warrant the expenditure on horses and plant to give him a good start, he should have at least 600 acres cultivated. When things go right, we can do 11 acres a day with a harvester. This year I have done 30 acres a week with it and the rest of my time was taken up with smashes. A huge amount of allowance must be made for smashes. A man cannot do more than 200 acres singlehanded properly. To expect a man to pay rent for the first five or six years is unreasonable. The price of the land can be paid easily after it has been brought into cultivation. We find it impossible to keep up the improved conditions, such as fencing. Under ordinary circumstances, a man will fulfill them easily, but the seasons have been against us.

8240a. By Mr. VENN: Are you troubled with rabbits?-- There is no doubt that they will become a very grave nuisance here.

8241. By the CHAIRMAN: Do you think you could make a success of your holding?-- Yes; but so far the seasons have been exceptional and we could not expect the best results at once. If we could get as much as a crop and get seven bushels we will do better still when the land is properly worked. One of the most important things to me would be that the Agricultural Bank should allow more for clearing forest land. We are far too busy cropping to do it ourselves and the Bank rates will not cover it. You cannot get the work done for the sum they allow for it. Mr. Sutton might help us by coming among us if he has the time. We have grown five crops in this district and he has never seen a single straw of it. I have received absolutely nothing in the way of advice or suggestions from the department. A good Agricultural Bureau, such as they have in South Australia, would be of vast assistance to us all.

8242. The Agricultural Bureau in the United States has a number of honorary branches and has the latest and most up to date information that the world can afford?-- We have all manner of soils here, from sand to heavy clay; and an expert could assist us materially in advice.

(The witness retired.)

_________________

SAMUEL GORDON (Samuel Gordon & Sons), Farmer, Kulim, sworn and examined:

8243. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been here?-- I came to the district six years ago. I have been farming all my life, partly in England and partly in Victoria, at Springfield and Healesville. We hold 3,000 acres; 2,100 are first class and the balance principally second class. The present price is 10s. We have seven miles cartage. There are 100 acres fenced and 1,200 cleared. We have two dams, 1,000 yards, 12 feet deep, one 2,000 yards, and one 1,000 yards, nine feet deep. The 2,000 yards dam was finished last August. The ground is deep but we made the batter too steep. I have eight children. I have a hessian and iron house, no stabling, a small shed, a set of implements, 14 working horses, a cow, a few pigs. I have a property in Victoria, also, and the rent from that I have spent here, amounting so far to about £400 and in addition another £200 cash. I borrowed £800 from the Agricultural Bank, and I owe the Industries Assistance Board about £800. I have 750 acres under crop going nine bushels.

8244. By Mr. PAYNTER: How much of that was fallow?-- Four hundred acres. I plough between four and five inches. Last year we cultivated twice. It depends on the weather. We count on Federation as our main wheat. Gluyas Early comes next. We are cutting up 1,200 acres into sections; some we sow with 45lbs., some with a bushel and some with 1¼