WILLIAM RIDLEY REDMAN, Farmer, Denmark, sworn and examined:

11553. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been 8½ years on the land in this district. I came from the goldfields and was born at Kingston in South Australia. I have 115 acres for which I am paying 15s. The original price was £3 18s. per acre. It is 3½ miles from the railway station. I cleared 15 acres. All of the block is fenced. I have a house of five rooms, the necessary sheds and stables. I am a married man with three children. I have 3½ acres of orchard planted to apples—Cleopatras and Johnathans. I have six cows, two horses and four pigs. I started with practically no capital and have borrowed about £250 from the Agricultural Bank. I also owe merchants about £170. I find I can make a living from the land. It is of course only an existance. I have been looking after a property for Mr. Lantzke. The position is that we were all new to the game. There was no one that we could get any object lesson from, and we went in for potatoes. These were a failure and the result is I got into debt with the merchants for manures and stores. For the past four years I have not incurred any further debt. Since realising that potatoes were a failure, I have gone in for dairy cows. I have three now and I think eventually after I have sufficient land cleared I can make a living from cows. Clearing is difficult and heavy. I am starting on land now that will cost me £25 an acre to clear. If I can put this under lucerne I can make a living from the cows. Another thing that would be of advantage to this district is the use of a tractor for clearing the land. We have not sufficient land laid down with pastures, and to hand-feed is too costly, whereas if you can feed with root crops and lucerne the cows will milk well. The Government tree-pulling tractor started here and then went away. They will not send it here again. There is a lot of country that could be pulled and cleared by tractor. This will undoubtedly be a great dairying district. With regard to the bacon factory, settlers have not been able in the past to get rid of their pigs produced in the summer months. I can make pigs pay by feeding with root crops and pollard. If we had an assured market, we could certainly make a success of pig keeping and dairying. Another thing: we are nearly as far as anyone from the market and the one thing that is killing us is the railway freights. We often send our produce to market and I have known where the returns have come back with a postage stamp for settlement, and in other cases where we have been in debt to the market for our sales. I consider that instead of charging the settlers the high railway freights, a tax on the unimproved value would get over the trouble. The consumer now has to pay more than he should while we are only increasing the value of town properties. Sixpence in the pound on the unimproved value of land would be the cheapest way of paying for our railways in the development stages. There are times when I have not been able to buy a postage stamp. We are 380 miles from Perth. With reference again to the tractors, we have tried for a long time to get an engine back here. They were taken away on the understanding that they would be returned in the following year. The method of using these tractors is wrong, if you pull the trees and let them lie with some of the roots still in the ground, as they keep on growing. The trees must be pulled clear. I know country that cost Mr. McNab £13 per acre to pull cost him subsequently £19 to clean up.

11554. By the CHAIRMAN: How old are your orchard trees?—Five to six years old. The apple trees only gave me half a case to the tree this year. I may say that they have had no manure since they were planted. This is a dear commodity and we cannot afford to go in for fertiliser.

11555. By Mr. VENN: What do you consider the cost of clearing?—There is some land that would cost £15 to £18, and I have some that would cost £30. Where the red gum and jarrah country supervenes—this is the country I prefer—it can be cleared for £10 in some instances. Land here had been worked by the unemployed, and these men cut the suckers down axe-handle high. This was good country to clear provided the people when they came here knocked the suckers down. Those, however, who let the suckers remain, now have trees to contend with of such a size that they cannot be knocked down. Explosives must be used as gelignite is unprocurable at Denmark. (The Chairman advised that he was of opinion that there was plenty of gelignite in the State and he should make inquiries to see whether it was not procurable.)

11556. By Mr. PAYNTER: What fertiliser do you apply to the land after clearing?—If I am putting down lucerne I put two bags of bonedust and two bags of super. In regard to potato growing, it is not a payable proposition on account of the quantity of fertiliser you have got to use. There are only certain kinds of karri lands which will grow potatoes. The light karri country will not grow them at all. It will, however, grow fodder crops. It will not grow fruit trees either. One of the best crops we can grow here is crimson clover.

11557. To the CHAIRMAN: It is necessary to use manure for all crops. In reference to grasses, my experience has been that if planted on new land they will not succeed. After planting a clover crop, any crops will grow well. Paspalum and rye grasses do well. There was some £2,000 worth of seed imported by the Hon. Mr. Mitchell. These grow well and come up when the land is cleared. I consider the only way that we can make a success is by partial clearing. On most of our land the big timber that is standing can be left, but there are a lot of stumps that Millars cut off that can only be handled by knocking down the scrub and burning the stumps out. I estimate the cost of partially clearing as I describe at about £6 per acre. There is some land that can be done under this price.

(The witness retired.)

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JOHN STEWART CORDY, Manager State Farm and Butter and Bacon Factory, Denmark, sworn and examined:

11558. To the CHAIRMAN: I have been for two years managing the State farm. The area of the farm is approximately 50 acres, 40 of which is cleared. There are complete buildings, a homestead of eight rooms, piggeries, cow stalls, stables, dairy, butter and cream factory. We carry 28 head of cattle, three horses and about 200 pigs. The pigs are run on the land and some are yarded. Others are in