8772. What is the advantage of growing peas at Merredin? - We want feed for our sheep during the summer and peas seem to be a promising thing in that respect.

8773. Do you think that in a dry climate like Merredin they will grow satisfactorily? - We grew the first crop in 1912, and they were up to my knees. That again brings out the difficulties we have to contend with in connection with the employment of improperly trained men. I have cut out the peas until I can get a man that I can depend upon. We must keep stick in the wheat belt; that will be an integral part of the farmer's business, and the great trouble will be to find the proper feed during dry periods.

8774. After your six years' experience here, what is your opinion of the wheat belt, its drawbacks, its disadvantages, and its prospects? - That is a big subject.

8775. I know it is. You might be able to tell us what you think of the possibilities from Ajana in the north, easterly, as far as Merredin, and down to Lake Grace? - Ajana, for instance, will only be successful with early varieties. The latest variety which should be grown there is Gluyas Early. At Merredin I believe you can grow a variety as late as Federation. Excluding the 1911-14 seasons, my belief is that wheat growing is a perfectly sound proposition.

8776. What do you think we should do with the second class and third class land in order to turn it to account? - Third class land will be mainly devoted to growing fodder crops, about which at the present time we do not know very much, particularly as to which are the most suitable, but at the present time it is indicated that oats is the most promising for feeding stock on with an occasional crop of wheat. Second class land will grow wheat provided that land is not abused. By that I mean that you cannot grow wheat on it every year. On the rich forest lands you can take liberties which you cannot take with the second class land.

8777. Do you hold that the best land is the land that should be developed first? - Yes.

8778. Would you advocate leaving the problems connected with the third class land to be dealt with in the future? - I think they ought to be solved.

8779. Do you not think we have enough work for this generation to do with the good land? - You probably have in mind that the farmers should solve the problem of the second and third class land. I have not that in my mind. I had in mind that the State should deal with this question for the next generation. I consider that the State should be a generation ahead of the farmer. While the good land is available, of course the farmer should not bother about inferior land. The State, however, should solve all the problems.

8780. Would you advocate that second and third class lands should be devoted to grazing purposes with a measure of cultivation which occasion or circumstances might dictate? - I do not quite know what you mean by the second class land.

8781. When the Government in the past surveyed a block of land it surveyed it with 600 acres of first class land and 200 acres of second class and 200 acres of third class. The policy then undoubtedly is to go on cultivating the first class land, leaving the second and third class until the future when it might be required. Would it not be better to devote that to grazing? There is a doubt about that. Take the Bruce Rock district. I was agreeably surprised to find some land there producing very profitable crops under cultivation. In fact the land is no good for grazing until it has had some cultivation. The farmer would do good service if he devoted his best attention to the good land and gradually brought the second class under cultivation so as to make it fit for grazing.

8782. In view of the fact that he can take crops off second class land less frequently, do you not think that that land and third class land should be held under the one tenure or that there should be a cheaper tenure for second and third class land, as compared with first class land?

8783. If you are going to follow the policy of developing the best land first, what is the good of saddling the settler with has 1,000 acres of land with land that he may not use in his life time? - If he has 1,000 acres, it should not take him his life time to get that under cultivation. I think you will agree that 1,000 acres is not too large a living area.

8784. That is so? - the policy is to encourage men without capital but with intelligence and being capable, and the financial policy should be to provide the settler with means to get the whole of that land into working order.

8785. What do you think of the rainfall as a whole; are there any exceptional districts that you wish to draw attention to? - The districts I consider somewhat doubtful are districts where the rainfall ends early in August instead of September. Speaking from memory, the district Ajana. There the rainfall ends about the end of August. Those are the districts that I find are exceptions from inquiries made.

8786. What about Mullewa? - That is very similar to Kellerberrin.

8787. The evidence we had there was very mournful? - At Kellerberrin we have this fact: it depends on the administration. At Kellerberrin you have a body of settlers who on the average do better farming than most other settlers in the State. They are all established men there like one of the Massinghams, whose methods are second to none in the Commonwealth. He is thorough. Mr. Stewart Patterson, Sturt Bros.; all those men who have thorough methods, have had very excellent influence on the farming of the district. You have not that influence in the Mullewa district.

8788. By Mr. VENN: Influence of good farming is very catching? - It is impossible to over-estimate the influence of good farmers in a district. At Mullewa the men are without experience. What they regarded as extraordinary operations, the men in the Kellerberrin district regarded as ordinary work. Most of the difficulty at Mullewa was that the men had not got into proper methods yet.

8789. Do you not think it would be a good idea to have farmers' plots in the farms themselves where farms are a long way from the experimental farms? - That would not get over the difficulty, but generally speaking I do; you have had the same difficulty that I have had to contend with. You may be vitiated by something on the part of the farmer at a critical moment. By attending to some operation at a critical moment you can get the