introduced in various districts. Potatoes are grown in the rich swamps, river flats and loamy slopes. Root crops, such as swedes and mangolds, can also be raised to perfection, and year by year the growth of summer maize and other fodder crops is extended as the conditions become better understood. hay and grain are grown principally for local requirements and stock feeding. Sheep are gradually increasing in numbers as the country is developed, and dairying is progressing in every district visited. Journeying northward, we found that grapes for the Perth market—dried table grapes, lexias and currants, of the highest quality—are being turned out by local growers; the manufacture of jams and canned fruits is being essayed by a co-operative growers' factory in Perth, and olives and olive oil of excellent quality are being prepared by a small factory in Guildford.

When it is remembered that only a handful of the country already occupied is developed and opened out, it is manifest that the future production of the South-West will rapidly outgrow the local consumption, and that the question of exploiting outside markets will become urgent as that production expands.

DEVELOPMENT.

The development of the average South-West farm is exceedingly costly. The timber away from the western plain is always heavy and sometimes colossal. Drainage is frequently necessary. The work of carving out homes in the forest country, or of building up the land on the plains, in infinitely laborious and tedious. In all questions relating to the future of the country, the relation of the capital cost of the land as compared with its productive value with the available markets, is a perplexing and intricate study.

The settlers of the South-West are, generally speaking, a fine type. As a rule, they were experienced men when they took up the land, and as a sturdy, self reliant class, who thoroughly understand their work, and are not afraid of any work, they would hold their own in any company. To the members of the Commission a striking feature was the small average indebtedness, and the number of settlers whose rule of life was to avoid debt altogether. The most unsatisfactory type was the inexperienced immigrant, who, by selecting unsuitable land, or attempting impossible methods of development, had courted the inevitable failure which follows such mistakes. On the other hand, trained English dairy farmers are invariably doing well, and wherever we met experienced peasant types for the Continent, these were found most suitable settlers for the laborious life of the South-West. We express the opinion that the further introduction of these peasant types from the Old World will do much to build up and develop the country.

DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. The average holdings are small and range from 10 to 400 acres. Mixed farming is general, both summer and winter crops of grain, hay, roots, potatoes, or fodder being raised. A small orchard is the usual accompaniment, and the homesteads nestling amid the orchards and surrounded by green fields, were a contrast to the shacks in the wheat belt. Sheep and dairy cattle—both usually—are kept everywhere. The incomes are not large, but the settlers are frugal and thrifty. A marked feature of our South-West lands, attractive as they appear, is that there are always lacking certain essential plant foods which must be applied to the soil to produce profitable crops. Hence our potato growers, as an example, despite the excellent yields that are secured, lose much of the benefit of their geographical position in competition with the Victorian grower, who requires little or no manure. The problem of the future increases in complexity as we realise again that the relation of our costs to our markets prescribes the outlook of production in many directions.

FORESTRY AND AGRICULTURE.

The agricultural situation in the South-West is inextricably intertwined with the forestry policy of the State. The forests mingle with the agricultural lands in a manner incapable of brief description, and, apart from the rich valleys, the question always arises as to whether the land is more valuable for timber or for settlement. Especially is this the case with the Karri forests, which Mr C. E. Lane-Poole, the Conservator of Forests, estimates yield 40 loads of timber per acre, even under existing methods of milling, the value of which to the State in royalties, freight and general taxation, contributed by the operatives, he places at £45 per acre. Under existing methods some 15 loads per acre are left on the land, and it is contended further that milling this timber, without a market for the scantlings, results in an economic loss of something like 25 per cent. of the sawn timber, which now goes into the fire. Mr Lane-Poole, on these figures, holds that these Karri lands, capitalises on a basis of 4½ per cent. per annum, and taking into account their future yields of timber, are worth £12 10s. per acre to the State for permanent reservation for forestry purposes.

In view of the growing shortage of hardwoods, the world over, of the fact that the older countries of the world find it necessary to re-establish forests to take the place of those destroyed during periods in their agricultural history similar to those which we are now passing through, and to the overwhelming consideration that these majestic forests, the State's heritage from the ages, should not lightly be wasted, the case for their reservation is very strong.

On the other hand, Mr J. P. Camm, whose evidence on the subject was most clearly set forth, considers that the pick of the Karri forests should be devoted to settlement as the timber is cut out, in the interests of future railway development, and the close settlement of considerable areas, as against the sparse settlement which must be the accompaniment of any other scheme. The Karri country to which Mr Camm refers—which is better described as mixed Karri—will largely justify his contention, as its productive capacity is remarkable. Lucerne grows well without any irrigation, even on the top of the hills, and in the production of fruit and vegetables, root and fodder crops, or, for the establishment of permanent pasture for dairying, this country has no equal in the State.

The future of these lands must be a matter of State policy. If that policy be to gouge out the eyes of the timber under the present wasteful methods of the State, then no doubt a policy of railway construction for the removal of timber, and the opening out of the land to settlement, could be arranged hand in hand. If the policy, on the other hand, is to adopt the attitude of the Royal Commission on Forestry, 1904, and the recommendations of the For-