11218. Have you tried dairying? — I do not go in for dairying. I used to do so.

11219. What difficulties are you labouring under? — The cost of production, manures, and the marketing of our produce. The cost of marketing our stuff is too great.

11220. By Mr. PAYTNER: Is not co-operation overcoming these difficulties? — The middleman gets too much out of us. Eight bags of potatoes cost me 12s. 9d. in railage, cartage and commission. What is required is central markets in Perth, where the stuff can go right into the market and save such items as cartage. Sometimes is does not pay to send a truck load of potatoes to the market. If you send four tons to the market you do not get the price, and a point I should like to stress is the matter of freights. A four-ton truck costs 9s. 5d. to Perth, and one ton costs about 16s. 8d. Why should the small man have to pay like this? I have sent cases of fruit to Perth and I obtained nothing in return for them. In regard to manures, a truck of manure costs approximately 9s. if you can afford to buy a four-ton lot. If you get a ton it also costs 9s. In the matter of co-operation, farmers often cannot afford to pay their proportion of the freight at the time others are sending their orders, so you see that we cannot always get over the difficulty in this manner. Also we do not all buy from the same merchant. These things are affecting the farmer very materially. For instance, supposing I grow one ton of potatoes and receive £5. By the time railage and expenses are taken out of this I make nothing out of it. This occurs year after year. If I send a ton of turnips, after I have paid the cost of bags and charges, I find there is nothing left.

11221. By the CHAIRMAN: What is the lowest price at which you can produce potatoes and make them pay? —£8 per ton. At this price we can make a living out of it.

11222. To Mr CLARKSON: This is at a cost of £14 to £17 per ton for seed and £10 to £12 per acre for manure. The average yield is about three tons.

11223. How do you arrive at those figures? —

Seed —£6 0.s 0.d 15cwt. manure —£9 0.s 0.d Cost of planting —£3 0.s 0.d Cost of digging —£3 12.s 0.d Cost of bags —£1 8.s 0.d Cartage —£0 15.s 0.d

11224. By Mr VENN: Do you produce your own seed? — Yes, as a rule.

11225. What other crops do you go in for? — We grow a little hay, but after the wet winter last year we only got 5cwt, to the acre. If you have to employ labour there is nothing in that crop.

11226. By Mr. PAYTNER: What quantity of fertiliser do you use for your hay crops. I use 2cwt, of super to the acre. The average yield is only one ton. Last year I sold my hay at £4 5s. on rails and made a few pounds out of this.

11227. By the CHAIRMAN: Are there any other matters you would like to bring under the notice of the Commission? — Yes, in this district we do not get any assistance from the experts in the Department of Agriculture. They have a potato expert, but we never see anything of him. In my opinion we should be able to buy seed wherever we like. It is hard to get good seed in the South-West. The Osborne Park growers can get their seed from the Eastern States and they are getting better results than we are. We cannot buy further North than Mundijong. I think that the restrictions should be removed. We have all the diseases in the South-West that are known elsewhere.

(The witness retired.)

PATRICK FITZPATRICK, Farmer, Waroona, sworn and examined:

11228. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been 23 years on the land in this district. I have 270 acres which is freehold. It is 3½ miles from the railway station. I consider half of my land is first class. It is all fenced. Half of it is cleared, and that half has been under the plough. I have five acres under intense culture. I have a house of four rooms, sheds and stables, the necessary implements for working the land, about 100 breeding ewes, three horses and three herd of cattle, and four pigs. I started with enough money to pay a deposit. I have been able to develop my land without getting into debt. I obtained £150 from the Agricultural Bank but have repaid all but £90 of it. I make my living by mixed farming. I can always pay 20s. in the pound.

11229. To Mr. CLARKSON: I used to go out and work in order to obtain money to put into my property. When I came here my land was flooded with water. The Government promised that they would drain the land. They did not do so for 15 years, then they put in the main drain and since then we have improved our property and are making easier livings. My experience in this district is this: If we had a liberal supply of cheap lime the land that I took five or six years to bring under grass could be placed under pasture satisfactorily in three years. I have seen this tried and know it to be the case.

11230. By Mr. VENN: This is well drained land? — No, I refer to the ordinary land. Stock will feed wherever the lime has been applied. I would strongly urge a cheap lime should be supplied. The money that we should have in our pockets is paid away in fertiliser. The land is no good until it is improved by the means described. We are paying away a vast amount of money every year for fertiliser, and I consider that we can reduce this by two-thirds if we are enabled to obtain cheap lime. Lime as you know will also make available the fertiliser for plant food.

11231-2. To Mr CLARKSON: I carry the number of sheep mentioned all the year round, but I have to hand feed them for two months at this time of the year.

11233. Have you tried dairying? — No.

11234. By Mr. VENN: Why is dairying not going ahead in this district? — There are a good number of people starting dairying lately. The reason I have not gone in for it is that I have a young family, and I cannot afford to employ labour. I do not consider that you can carry enough stock to make the employment of labour profitable. One man can manage 10 cows, and I do not consider that you can make a living out of 10 cows.