JOHN ROBERT HARRISON , aged 47, farmer,3½ miles west of Grass Patch , married , no children —sworn and examined:

297. By the Chairman: What land do you hold in this district?— I have 1,300 acres of C.P., including a homestead, locs. 32 and 93. All my improvements are on No 32. I have had previous experience of farming in England. I came out in 1890,but have spent nearly ten years in South Africa since then. I have 330 acres cleared , all of which has been cropped. I have a small dam of about 200 yards four feet deep. It holds very well and it has never been empty long enough to give me a chance of enlarging it. I have a house and stable , a small machinery shed,2½ miles of single barbed wire and two acres netted against dogs. I have occupied the land since 1911.I have had five crops off it , including the first of 12 acres. The yields have been poor in average with good patches. I account for the small returns by a cycle of bad seasons. The main reason is insufficient cultivation along with the fact that the ground is a mass of live mallee roots , and until it has been thoroughly ploughed one cannot expect much of a crop.It requires three or four years of cultivation before really good crops can be looked for. I have been short of horses and implements. I usually sow 56 lbs of super and 45lbs of seed. Last year I had in 140 acres. I cut 75 acres for hay and got 30 tons. From 65 acres of wheat I got 80 bags. Seventy acres were fallowed , but that season fallowed land did not seem to have any advantage over non-fallowed, because we got so much heavy rain. This year I have 125 acres in crop with fallow at all. We do not get much chance to fallow, so much is there to do. I have had assistance from the Agricultural Department and from the Industries Assistance Board.The growing crop is fair in respect of two-thirds of it, the balance being poor. The poor part is on land that had suckers on it. Where there is sand or loam there is a bit of crop , but some of it is hard clay.That on the ground worked last year is a fair crop of about half a ton of hay and eight or ten bushels of wheat. It is very fair for the cultivation I have been able to give it. A yield of 10 bushels would not be profitable but as soon as the land gets more thoroughly cleaned , I think the yields will be very good with proper cultivation. When I went on the land I had three horses and a dray.

298.Are you satisfied with the prospects of a return for your outlay ?— Not at present. Later I will get better returns. This year I do not intend to sell any wheat , but will turn it all into pork.Thus I expect to do better out of the wheat than by carting it.

299. Is it a business proposition to buy super at £11 per ton to grow eight bushels to the acre? — No. Our operations are not paying us at present , but every crop we take off is improving the land.

300. In what way could the district be best assisted by the Government? — They ought to give the settlers assistance in the way of horses and implements. We have been trying for years to secure this benefit. Mr. Sutton arranged that each settler was to get up to £500 by way of loan , 80 per cent to married men and 75 percent to single men. He said the Agricultural Bank had been paying up to the full 100 percent and allowing the settler to get stock and implements but that they found the money was being spent although the implements were not bought and so he thought it better to keep back 25 percent and let it go off stock and implements. Later on he said he thought the £500 would not be sufficient ; that he had to keep back portion for fencing. We contended that we did not need fences seeing that we had no stock. How ever , we never managed to get the loan for horses and implements. We have had no assistance from the Industries Assistance Board to pay machinery bills. So far as I know the only assistance anyone in the district has had is a super, and seed. one man at Scaddan has had an allowance for rations. We got seed from the department prior to the creation of the Industries Assistance Board , but since then we have had our own seed. I have a stump jump McKay 3-furrow disc plough, a set of three harrows, a stripper , and a winnower. The two latter are still unpaid for. I have four horses and 50 pigs, but no cattle or sheep.

301. By Mr.PADBURY: Have you sold any wheat? About 60 bushels last year to Esperance for seed. I carted with the dray as I went for super. I used three horses and with them i can take from 25 to 30 cwt. I got 5s and 6s per bushel for the wheat for seed. I am buying wheat at present to carry on my pigs until the new crop comes in. It is not possible to make farming pay here without a railway. One can live but that is all. I am living harder and working harder here than ever before in my life. My block is two miles from the railway survey. Grass starts up on the land after clearing. My land is of fair average quality I have 30 or 40 acres of red sand on which I have grown fair crops when the clay produced nothing.

302. By Mr. McDONALD: Have you formed any idea as to the carrying capacity of old cultivation paddocks for stock ? — No, I have ha no experience with sheep in this State. I should think you would want a good few acres to every head of sheep even in old cultivation paddocks. The best time of the year to roll the mallee is either in winter or early summer, September or October, and fire it in February or March. I think it is better to get the plough into it as quickly as possible after the fire and so save the ash. The disc plough is the better for killing stumps. It chops them about more than does the mould board. Again,the mould board plough hooks under the runners and gets choked up with them. I do not think the smallness of the yields is owing to the salinity of soil. I know that Mr.Middleton took a lots of samples of soil for analysiis. He did not take any from my block. I do not know why Mr.Middleton collected the samples of soil. I am paying 10s per acre I think it is too dear. It would be profitable for the State to let the people have the land for nothing. Certainly , a man should not be charged rent for the first five years.

303. By Mr. PADBURY : Have you experimented with super and wheat? — In 1912 I sowed a bushel but I have come to the conclusion that 45lbs is quite enough with our present methods of cultivation.

304. That was the worst year of all in which to sow that quantity ? —The crops suffered from lack of moisture. Part of my present crop appears to be too thick

(The witness retired) The Commission adjourned.