Part 9

Page 674
image 39 of 100

This transcription is complete

ALBERT JAMES FISHER, Farmer, Kojonup, sworn and examined:

9855. To Mr. CLARKSON: I am 25 miles South. I have been here ten years. I had previous experience in South Australia. I hold 2,000 acres, none of which is first class. It has all had poison on it. In many instances it is cheaper to clear the country than to eradicate the poison. Where the poison is light, it might be cleared at a cost of from 5s. to 7s. for the first clearing. I have from 300 to 400 acres cleared. I crop about 100 acres. I fallow every year. I cannot say in bushels the difference between fallow and other methods. My normal average is 10 bushels of wheat and 15 bushels of oats. I have to cart my super 25 miles at a cost of 30s. a ton. I have to get ten bushels at 10s. a bag to hold my own. I carry 600 sheep, two cows, and 130 horses, which run on the Crown lands outside. The carrying capacity of my holding is about four acres to the sheep, that is ringbarked and suckered, uncultivated land. The cultivated country would keep a sheep to two acres. I have tried artificial grasses, without success. I tried paspalum, buffalo grass, and subterranean clover; the clover disappeared, I do not think bulk handling would reduce costs. I would have to buy bags just the same to bring the wheat to the siding. Farming implements should come in free of duty.

9856. To Mr. PAYNTER: I favour the continuance of the wheat pool under management in which the farmers will have equal representation. I have not received any assistance from the experts or officials of the Agricultural Department. I do not consider the present land laws calculated to encourage a man to go on the land. Until recently the prices of land were exorbitant. My country far out was all assessed at 13s. 6d. per acre. It has now been reduced to 8s. 6d. With the knowledge I now have of poison land, I would not take it at a gift. I started with 400 breeding ewes and without having sold any, I have fewer to-day than when I started. We are troubled with dogs on my property. I would advocate the giving of land to the people under improvement conditions. To go in for rape and oats in large paddocks is a mistake. There are 20 square miles of unoccupied country surrounding me.

9857. To Mr. CLARKSON : Poison seedlings come up badly when one is sowing rape and oats in summer time. It takes about three cultivations to get rid of seedlings. In the first season they are far worse than at the first grubbing.

9858. By Mr. CLARKSON : Have you any suggestions to make for the encouragement of land settlement or the betterment of the agricultural industry?—Poison land should be reduced to 1s. an acre. People should be encouraged to clear the country rather than grub the poison.

9859. To Mr. PAYNTER: I could have done better had I stopped in the North-West. One can easily drop his money in this district. Until recently we had no consideration whatever from the Lands Department. I am seriously thinking of leaving the poison country altogether. (The witness retired.)


AUGUSTUS EGERTON WARBURTON, Kojonup, sworn and examined:

9860. To Mr. CLARSKON : I have been here for 22 years. I had previous experience of the Hay River and the Gordon River. I hold 6,000 acres, every inch of which has had poison on it. I have about 4,000 acres eradicated. It is easier to eradicate poison on good land than on inferior land. The average cost of eradication is about 8s. per acre: after that there are the seedlings to contend with for four our five burnings. I have 1,000 acres cleared for cultivation. I crop about 300 acres each year. I believe in fallow. Fallow will give about eight bushels per acre more than other methods. This district is equally good for both wheat and oats. My normal average is 15 bushels of wheat and oats. I consider I have to get five bushels at 10s. a bag to pay cropping expenses. I run 3,000 sheep. My horses run in bush. The carrying capacity of my block is about one and a half acres to the sheep. The capacity of the district in its unimproved cultivated state three sheep to the acre.

9861. To Mr. PAYNTER : The value of improved land in this district is about £4 10s. I do not consider the present land laws calculated to encourage people to go on the land. In the first place people are asked to take up more land than they require. A new man with no capital should have not more than 300 acres. A man can make a fair living off that area.

9862. To Mr. VENN : On such a holding a man should go in for mixed farming. The district is suitable for dairying. It has been so easy to get a living here that people will not go in for dairying. Probably in the future they will have to do so. A cow we have been milking continuously for two years makes two pounds of butter per week now. She gets 3d. worth of chaff twice a day and for the rest is on natural grasses.

9863. To Mr. PAYNTER: The first scale of land prices was about right. Then the prices went too high. I think 3s. 6d. an acre about right for posion land. One shilling an acre is not a fair value for the land. Some land, of course, is perfectly useless. A man is better without land worth only 1s. an acre. It is better to give 10s. an acre for fairly good land than 1s. an acre for bad land. The mere fact of having land will not put money in a man's pocket.

9864. To Mr. CLARKSON : I do not think the country on the Frankland River as good as this for dairying. I know the Deep River country and the Nornalup. They will require to run the railway though to Nornalup before they can successfully settle soldiers on the land there. The cost of clearing there will be heavy, but the land will give as excellent return. For dairying purposes one acre of that land is worth 15 here. Taken on the whole it is all heavily timbered, but there are patches where the timber is not so heavy. Grass can be grown all the summer down there . 9865. By Mr. CLARKSON : Have you any suggestions as to what the State might legitimately do for the betterment of the agricultural industry or the encouragement of land settlement ?—The most important factor is cheap railway freight. I think it is legitimate to run the railways at a loss until the country is more densely settled. Apples which I sent to Kalgoorlie brought £8, of which £3 odd went to