THURSDAY, 22nd FEBRUARY, 1917, (At Dumbleyung.) Present: J.O Giles, Esq. , Chairman. H.H. Paynter, Esq. F.E. Venn, Esq. ____________

JOSEPH NEWMAN, Farmer, Dumbleyung, sworn and examined:

8465. By the CHAIRMAN: How long have you been in the district?-- I came here in 1908, and have been farming all my life. I was for a time in the Public Works Department. I hold 1,762 acres; 1,400 acres are first class and cost 10s. I purchased 300 acres, and I have 250 acres lease situated seven miles from the railway. it is all fenced and subdivided into 14 paddocks; 1,400 acres are cleared. I have six dams which have never been empty. Two are over 2,000 cubic yards and two are 1,000 cubic yards, 12 feet deep. I am a married man with four boys and a girl. Three children are working at home. the school is 11 miles distant. I have a nine-roomed brick house, a 20-stall stable, shed, chaff-house, engine-room, set of implements, 15 horses, and 19 youngsters, six cows, a bull, seven calves, 700 sheep, seven pigs. My capital was £900. I worked on the Agricultural Bank to start with. I have now an overdraft of £3,000 with the National Bank. When you start with the Agricultural Bank you may get £400 for clearing, but all the time you are running into debt with the storekeeper. The settler is making a farm; he is not farming. The trouble is the scarcity of money with which to make a farm. I have got nothing out of my property. It is not worth more than £1 a week and tucker to me. I have 600 acres of crop averaging 8¾ bushels. The last dry September knocked us out altogether. The nearest doctor is at Wagin, and the lowest fee he charges for a trip is £10. On one occasion I drove in for him, and was charged 15 guineas.

8466. Do you think the Agricultural Department and its experts have been of assistance to settlers in providing information necessary to a pioneer district?-- I do not know that they have ever done anything for us.

8467. The taxpayer imagines that the department which is maintained at high cost is doing everything possible for the benefit of the man on the land?-- I have seen nothing of them, but I know this, that if you are a few days late with your rent, they write to you a court notice. Mr. Sutton was here, I believe once. Still, I do not know that he has been asked to come. There are many farmers who consider they know quite as much as Mr. Sutton.

8468. By Mr. PAYNTER: How much of your land is fallow?-- All of it. I plough my fallow deep. I have a heavy clay loam, and use eight horses and a four-furrow plough.

8469. You do not fallow a uniform depth?-- We endeavour to do four or five inches. We have not averaged over an acre a board. We try to finish seeding in the middle of June. Sometimes we give it no cultivation. It depends if there are sheep on it. Last season I fallowed deep early in the year, and feed come up on it thick. I put 1,100 of Lukin's sheep on it, but they made no difference to it. If I had been keeping the sheep on the land, and kept it clean, I would have had double the crop. I do not know that there is much difference in seed wheat. I have had 10 varieties to try. They vary in results. I concluded that Baroota Wonder was best for hay, and Federation. I have had Lott's. We are trying Currawa now. Of graded wheat I sow about 50lbs. to the acre. I do not pickle for hay unless I see smut in it. I had over two tons of hay to the acre. I sometimes make a bag of super do three acres. I have a Massey-Harris spring tooth 10ft. cultivator, which does 17 or 18 acres a day and a 16-drill. I started with an International harvester, and afterwards got a May Brothers harvester. They were both 6ft. In 1914 I got a stripper, and have since used it. I could not use big machinery on my land as it is too rough.

8470. By the CHAIRMAN: At what number of bushels per acre would you be no worse off?-- I am worse off now than I was four years ago. I got 11 bushels last year and eight this year, and the previous year I got four bushels, but from that back it was better.

8471. By Mr. PAYNTER: What was your average for the first three years?-- Fifteen bushels. The first two years I broadcasted and harrowed. The tariff is an incubus. We pay 3d. a bushel more for our bags. The duties are far too heavy. If bulk handling would work out a shilling cheaper than the bags I would favour it. I am not in favour of it if it increases costs. In normal seasons, 25s. is the price for clearing. I sent for £7 10s. worth of fodder crop seed, but of the lot lucerne was the only survivor. I only broadcasted it. None of it stood the dry season with the exception of the lucerne. You can grow vegetables for a few months only. I have not had time to attend to fruit trees. I keep pigs for my own use. In this district a man should take up as much as he can deal with. I would like 2,000 acres good land if I could get it. A man who puts in less than 300 acres the first time he puts in anything is doing no good at all. He wants land cleared to enable him to fallow at least 400 to 500 acres. I would like to give the land away, and so encourage settlers to remain on their holdings.