of the Bank in other districts is not due so much to the quality of the land as to the results of drought and the war, which have caused them to get behind. In the Eastern wheat belt farmers have been able to get up to 20 bushels of wheat with only a scratched in crop. The Ongerup country is being condemned as a wheat proposition. The settlers cannot get the results from it. it is only third class land, and in my experience third class land is not a wheat proposition.

589. In forest land the absence or otherwise of super. makes a considerable difference in the crop?—Yes. Without super. one can get a fair crop in the complete growth providing the season is satisfactory. I was engaged in farming 10 or 12 years before super. was used, and grew up to 18 bushels on good fallowed land. In those days we cut out the light land and followed the forest patches. When the super came in we cultivated the land on a face, and with super. got fair crops on the lighter land.

590. On this Esperance land would you not put in more than a bushel of wheat to the acre, and use more then 45lbs. of super.?—I would not put in more wheat, but I would put in more super. it would want 1cwt. of super to make a successful growth, if it is to be successful. I am trying to explain our report in regard to our general opinion on the land. I visited the farm of a man north-east of Grass Patch, about a mile and a-half above North Patch.

591. Would that be Mr Holman?—It may be. When we visited the property he had completed the rolling down of 100 acres. It was beautiful land to look at. He was dry ploughing the country and treating it exactly the same as we do in the Eastern districts. He was ploughing with a stump-jump plough, taking a 3in. tilth, and the land could not look better. I said, "What relative results do you expect to get from this?" and he replied, "It all depends on the season." I said. "I understand you have no doubt about the seasons here and have a certain rainfall of 12 or 13 inches." He said, "It is very patchy at times, but that with the best season and rainfall, I expect to get eight bushels." I said, "There is something radically wrong with that." and he replied, "I think so, but I do not know what it is." he had a dam in a creek which resembled a dam one might see at Dowerin or Kellerberrin. The subsoil was beautiful, and it looked all right. We also went through stubbles, which had given a return of five or six bushels. He told me he used 58lbs. of wheat, but I remarked that over a good deal of the stubble there could not have been a greater return then 8lbs. of wheat to the acre. I also noticed that the pig-faced plant, which grows in the Eastern districts, was prevalent down there. I have a patch of similar country at Grass Valley, with morrell tree growing through it, and a considerable portion of that grows nothing but pig-face. It has turned into black salt country. All round such patches there is always a tendency for the wheat not to germinate. If a wheat plant lives it generally grows into a plant, but in this class of country it is difficult to get it to germinate. Even this analysis of •05 of salt is not a killer for wheat, and in my opinion there must be something more than that •05 of salt which prevents the wheat from germinating. We visited 30 crops or more during the month of March, and there was only one field in which the stubble appeared to be at all fair. When we came to Perth and found this report, I felt satisfied that we had struck the reason for the poor crops. We may be wrong. I could not recommend the Bank to take over the proposition as a sound security with only the results of five years farming, and an average of four or five bushels. In the drier Eastern belts our average over five years has been eight bushels, but during that period we had two years of drought in which we got nothing at all. When there are 40 or 50 farmers spread over about 50 miles of country, and they have been farming for five years, and have got nothing more to show for their work than these results, something must be wrong. One would have thought that at least one of them would have fluked a crop. The trouble may be the roots of the mallee, but I do not know. My experience of wheat land generally is that country which will not grow a good crop in its new State—I am speaking of West Australian wheat land—will not grow wheat in its old state. Off the mallee country in the Eastern districts we get about 10 bushels of wheat.

592. By the CHAIRMAN: It is a different class of mallee to this country?—It is better than the general run of that mallee country in appearance.

593. It is not uniformly mallee country?—It is broken country, and abuts on the forest land. There is not so much limestone. The limestone nodules in our country crop up amongst the morrell, and we see that in the stunted morrell country. I have cut out a considerable portion of cleared land of this nature which is inclined to be fluffy country. It grows nothing.

594. BY Mr PADBURY: Probably the seed goes down too deeply in that country?—The land does not hold the moisture. In July I have had a magnificent crop on this class of country, but in September it has been all dust.

595. By the CHAIRMAN: Do you wish to give the Commission any further information?—My report was a security report to the bank. Any man who reports on that country must look for results, but we have not been able to get them.

595A. You only made one visit to the district?—That is all.

596. Has it occurred to you that in this particular class of country a man would require to study it for three or four years before being able to speak positively about it?—I speak from actual results obtained after four or five years farming.

597 By Mr PADBURY: Do you think the farmers have given the country a fair trial; has there not been bad farming?—Undoubtedly, but several farmers have dealt with the country under standard farming methods.

598. Are there not many holdings which are not fenced, and do you not see stock running amongst the crops?—I saw very few stock, but there is a lot of country which is not fenced. At Richardson's place a considerable sum of money must have been spent on that property, and the land which was fairly well cultivated only gave five bushels. From Scaddan southwards, the mallee country I do not think is capable of growing wheat at all. It is a skin of sand over a clod clay sub-soil. West of that there is much better looking mallee land. I examined it with a pick and shovel, but I have not been able to understand the results which have been got from it. They were not more than six bushels. The wheat head was good, but there was nothing of it.