FRIDAY, 18th MAY, 1917. (At Ongerup.) ___________

Present: F.E. Venn, Esq. (in the Chair). H.H. Paynter, Esq. _______________

CECIL CONNELL, farmer, Ongerup, sworn and examined:

9288. To Mr. PAYNTER: I have been on the land since 1911. I had no previous experience. In the partnership we have 3,363 acres, of which 600 acres is first class land; the balance is second and third class, some of the latter being medium land, and some no good at all. It was all infested with poison, both timber country and scrub. We were paying for the timber country 15s., and the balance 13s. There has been a reduction of 5s. per acre on both classes of country. I have 1,700 acres of scrub rolled and cut, but I am afraid some of it has grown up again. We cultivate about 800 acres. About 1,784 acres are fenced and all netted; it is subdivided into four paddocks of considerable size and one much larger. There are two dams on the property and a Government dam close handy. One of our dams is 1,250 yards and the other 1,150 yards and ten feet deep. These provide a permanent supply. I am a married man with one child, who is not of school-age yet. The nearest doctor is at Katanning. I live at the store myself, and we have a married couple and two men on the farm. I have a 12-stall stable and a rough shed for machinery, of which I have a full farming plant. I have ten working horses, two foals, approximately 90 sheep, and 50 pigs. I am only putting in 150 acres, and have let 300 acres on the share system, on the half and half principle. I provide two horses, a plough and drill, and chaff to put the crop in, and the super. The share farmer provides the seed and does the cropping. I have carried out experiments and come to the conclusion that 60lbs of seed is ample for wheat and 70lbs for hay. I have experimented with super and consider 40lbs sufficient. The crop does not improve by increasing this quantity. I had an analysis of the soil made and worked my experiments in manuring on this. The whole of the crop I am putting in is on fallow. I cultivate fallow up to five or six inches, and work it as much as I can. My average for the past five years, excluding the drought year, was nine bushels. The highest I had was 16 bushels, namely, in 1912. I only put in a small area, and it was on the best land on the property. Last year I got ten bushels. I am on the Agricultural Bank, and was a client of the Board until this year, but have paid it off. My father put capital into this property, which, with the loan from the Agricultural Bank, amounted to £6,000. Under normal conditions the property would bring a good price, but at the present time it is practically valueless. I should think my liability, everything included, amounts to about £7,000. My wife's store is mortgaged against the property. I think the bulk handling system would be a saving to farmers, and base my remarks upon my experience in wheat buying in this district. It would be a big saving in bags, but a greater saving in preventing the waste which now occurs. The present land laws are good enough with some land, but it depends on the quality. I think in regard to the poison country at Ongerup the Government should reduce it to absolutely minimum price, and by so doing, set off the rents paid already, which would practically allow for the full price of the land.

9289. To Mr. VENN: I consider the carrying capacity of improved land with no poison on it, one sheep to three acres all the year round. On some properties at Ongerup there I little poison. They are carrying a few sheep and large stock, and making a fair living. No one has gone in for dairying here to any extent. I do not call this a dairying district. Dingoes have been a great trouble here, though tame dogs have also had a say in the matter.

9290. To Mr. PAYNTER: So far as the mort land is concerned, if you work it immediately after a fire and keep it worked you can keep it clean, but it grows no grass. If you roll the country and burn it and then leave it, it suckers up again. It must be worked continually. The character of the soil is clayey. For the first season after cultivation grasses grow a little, but after then they die right off. It is not suitable land for grazing. This also applies to a great extent to the mallee country, but the suckers come so quickly that one is all the time clearing. After my experience I would not mind persevering with the mort country, but the mallee country is not worth bothering with. Wheat growing is not a payable proposition without sheep here. I should say the average yield for the district is about five bushels. The Needilup people grow better crops, and have brought the average for the district up. Their average has been from 10 to 15 bushels, but this is 16 miles away. Some of them are carting 20 to 22 miles. The Needilup farmers are in a better position than those at Ongerup. It is an English settlement, and while they are not making money out there, they are establishing themselves. There are a number of them on the Industries Assistance Board in the Ongerup district, and I should say 75 per cent of them are hopeless. Several have abandoned their