30 acres From the 60 acres stripped I got 4½ bushels to the acre. This crop was all ploughed. It was sown in May, the proportion of seed and super being the same as before. I had no crop in 1915, nor have I this year.

239. By Mr. PADBURY: Why not in 1915? —I was getting in dept., so I left it and came to Norseman. The conditions are too impossible without a railway.

240. By Mr. McDONALD How do you account for the wheat going only 4½ bushels? —There was no rain, or rather not at the right time. The land is 3½ miles due west of the 30-miles condenser. It is light sandy soil, but not sand plain. It has a clay subsoil. It is light mallee There are now a lot of suckers on the clearing. To cut them down would cost 2s 6d. an acre; they have been growing two years. When doing the clearing I let a contract for rolling the first 30 acres at 5s per acre . The remainder I cleared myself. I have had assistance from the Agricultural Department, but without my papers cannot say exactly how much I had no trouble in getting it, but I could not get as much as I asked for.

241. By Mr PADBURY: do your tanks hold? —Yes, like a bottle. The water is good and is as clear as gin. The tank is 9ft deep and has never been empty since we finished it.

242 By Mr. McONALD: You do not think the salinity of the soil has anything to do with the lightness of the yield? —No. I am perfectly satisfied with the land. the mallee will not grow wheat until you get the stumps right out. When supering the wheat one is supering the suckers as well. My wife was not down there with me.

243.By the CHAIRMAN: you think the land would grow better if thoroughly cleared and fallowed? —I am certain of it. I have seen excellent mallee land in South Australia on the Murray Flats, and this down there is exactly similar. Mr. Sutton was out at my place and considered the land good enough for 26 or 28 bushels. The dingoes about my place are very numerous. I have not any sheep there, but I have had pigs. There is no grass on my cleared land. The suckers beat it . Down the back of my place after a bush fire passed through fine grass sprang up. B.W. Taylor is looking after my place; his block adjoins mine.

244 By Mr. McDONALD: We are told that grass does not grow in the mallee after a bush fire? — Then you have been misinformed. Wherever you get burnt mallee you will get grass until suckers choke it.

245. By the CHAIRMAN: have you taken particular notice of other settlers' crops? —Yes. For the most part they are about the same as mine. Here and there one could find better patches. I will certainly go back on the land if the railway is built , but not otherwise. I am perfectly satisfied that given the railway I could make a living. With the experience I have had ai could grow much better crops now. I would get all the stumps out first. The average rainfall there is 20 inches. Mr. Taylor will give you the exact figures, for the rain gauge is at my place. A fortnight ago the country side down there was under water

246 By Mr. PADBURY: Did your wheat seem thick enough with a bushel to the acre? —Yes, but the dry weather killed it . Moreover, in the first year the ground was sour. In one drill I forgot to sow super and I noticed afterwards that there was no wheat there. Our stock ate most of the hay and the weevils got into the wheat in the shed. We fed it to the pigs.

247. By the CHAIRMAN: What is the cost of carting from Esperauce to your place? —Some of it cost me £4 a ton.

248. By MR. PADBURY: Did you try vegetables? —Yes; they grow well at my place, but the frost settled the potatoes. (The witness retired) The commission adjourned.