700 acres cleared and 500 acres under crop averaging 11 bushels.

8263. Have you found the Agricultural Department officials active in giving advice as to seed, water, and other information that a proper department should impart to settlers, so as to put them on the right track ?- No ; I have always acted on my own initiative.

8264. The taxpayer believes the department is giving advice and supervision throughout the State ? - Then I have seen nothing of it. We know we have a wheat commissioner, but that is all we do know

8265. By Mr. PAYNTER : How much of your land is fallowed ? - I have no fallow this year. The year before we were advised to put all the crop we could in, and therefore I put all the cleared land in. I plough four inches and cultivate once, as a rule. The most suitable seed I find to be Yandilla King and Federation, of which I sow 50lbs. to the acre and 60lbs. of super. My highest yield was 14 bushels in 1913. It costs from 34s. to 35s. to put in and take off a crop. I have not considered the tariff or the question of bulk handling. In this district we suffer at times from late frosts. I pickle and grade my wheat. Vegetables do well for about three months. To make a living here a man should have 1,500 acres. He should have 600 acres cleared to enable him to fallow and crop 300. I do all my own work with the assistance of a boy, and I do 500 acres myself, with about 200 acres of fallow. I have a little help at harvest time. If co - operation could be worked it would be great advantage, and I believe a start is being made now. The conditions of land settlement up to recently have been the most liberal of the Eastern States, but the poison land should be reduced in price. To clear that country should be sufficient and then it should be given away.

8266. By Mr. VENN : Do sheep do well here ? - They are our main stay. Ringbarked and cleared country would run a sheep to three acres. There have been no dingoes or rabbits here so far.

8267. By the CHAIRMAN : How much capital did you have when you started ? - I had £300. I found the Agricultural Bank too slow so I went to National Bank, who have treated me very well. My overdraft is £800, but there is £500 to come in for wheat. My overdraft will then be somewhere about £400, and I have no other liabilities. The settlers are very good, I think, and are getting a footing, although, of course, there is a proportion of failures. No man can do any good here without sheep. All the men from the other States are succeeding. The English people are not so accustomed to our methods of farming as yet. Nearly all of them have a few good sheep to help along with. There is plenty of catchment for holding water everywhere, and on the whole the prospects of the district are good. I personally have not looked for Government help. Probably if their experts offered me advice I do not know that I would take it. The average rainfall would be about 17 inches and the bulk of it falls in the growing season. We often get too much in the middle of winter for three or four weeks at a time.

                                                  ( The witness retired. ) 

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

BERNARD BEDE WHITE , Farmer, Tollibin, sworn and examined :

8268. By the CHAIRMAN : How long have you been in this district ? - I came here In 1905. I was reared amongst stock on the Hunter River, New South Wales. I have 1,500 acres of first class land. Pay 10s. for 1,260 acres, less a homestead, and the balance 18s and 13s. The property is four miles from the railway. I have 1,000 acres cleared, all fenced with sheep - fencing and subdivided into ten paddocks. I have two dams and a soak. One dam is 10 feet deep, 1,100 cubic yards capacity ; the other is six feet deep and 800 yards capacity ; They were permanent for many years, but lately they cut out, although they still have water. I am making both of them deeper and putting down two more tanks. I am a married, and have stables, wool shed, machinery shed, set if implements, eight working horses. I had £600 capital when I came here, and I deal with the Union Bank. My limit is £1,500. I think it stands at about £1,100 now. I have 300 acres of crop, yielding 30 cwt. of hay and 14 bushels per acre.

8269. Do you ever have the advice of the departmental experts as to the methods of farming and other matters of interest to the settler ? - There may be room for improvement, but I think they are doing well enough, in fact I think the department is doing its duty. Mr. Sutton's advice as to the best wheats appeals to me as being the right thing.

8270. By Mr. PAYNTER : How much of your crop was fallow ? - It was all fallow. I plough four inches. I cultivate with a spring - tooth once before seeding. Yandilla King and Federation have done well with me and Baroota Wonder for hay. I sow 53lbs. of seed and 75lbs. of super to the acre. The cost of putting in and taking off per acre, in my experience, is about 32s. In 1909 I got 16 bushels, which was my highest average yield. In regard to the tariff, I never was a freetrader, and my belief is that we must have a certain amount of protection. I do not think we can abolish the tariff. Larger implements and teams would reduce costs. I have used nothing but an eight - furrow Skim plough with six horses. It is a mouldboard plough, and you can do 10 acres a day with it. With an 8ft. cultivator I can do 15 acres, and with a 13 drill 12 acres with one team. I have used harrows and I have a 6ft. binder, which does 10 acres. I have gone back to the old stripper and winnower, but we could not get labour now to work on a winnower. You get a lot of feed for your stock, and you can get over your stripping more quickly with a harvester. I have had no disease amongst my crops, but frost is our greatest trouble. I pickle and grade my wheat. We have had a nice lot of stone fruit this year. To make a decent living a man should have 1,000 acres in this district ; he should have 500 acres cleared and he can handle that with one team. The maximum amount a man could do by himself, on the fallow system, would be 300 acres, but he would want a large plough to do that. The conditions of rent are good, but the price could be reduced because the land is worth nothing until it is improved. Land around here, the best of it, should not be above 15s.

8271. By Mr. VENN : Do sheep do well in this district ? - I could not make farming pay without them, but there are very few who keep sheep. I