APPENDIX No. 13.

                                                                                                South Australia and Victoria.

                                                                                  Statements of Representative Mallee Farmers.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Statements of Representative Mallee Farmers.

F. H. EDWARDS, J.P., farmer, of Marino, Pinnaroo. Situation of holding: One to eight miles from Pinnaroo.

Original cost of land: From 10s. to 20s. per acre.

Description of land: Flats of chocolate loam and red sand over red or grey clay of a very retentive nature; sandhills running east and west of a light brown colour, the higher ones white on top. The majority of the land is flat and crabholes are numerous. All was covered in its virgin state with dense scrub, principally mallee, but on the poorer land with broom and other bush and scrub pine. Patches of splendid pines were numerous in the early days but have long since disappeared, having been used for fencing and building.

Area held: 5,300 acres.

Present value: 2,300 acres, within three miles of Pinnaroo is well improved and is worth about £7 per acre. 3,000 acres of much poorer land, also well improved and situated about eight miles from the township, is worth £2 10s. to £3.

Methods of clearing: the scrub is rolled down during July, August, or September, with a scrub-roller drawn by either horses or bullocks, and in February or March is burnt.

Cost of clearing: Rolling from 4s. to 6s. per acre; spring back cutting, from 1s. to 1s. 6d.; clearing firebreak and burning, 1s. per acre. In case of a bad burn stick-picking and cutitng snags costs from 1s. to 4s. per acre. For the following seven or eight years, shoot-cutting costs from 6d. to 2s. 6d. per acre, according to number and size. Stump-picking is another expense the mallee farmer has to meet. Every cultivating implement pulls out more or less. This work must be put down at from 9d. to 1s. per acre for the first seven to ten years.

Cultivation methods: in the early days of this district very light cultivation with tine or disc cultivator yielded good results. Ploughs were very little used and scarcely any fallowing was done. Now every farmer had his plough or ploughs and about half the area under crop each year is on fallow. The disc seed-drill is almost universally used, the hoe drill not being a success amongst the sticks, roots, and stumps.

Quantity of seed used: In the early days, 45lbs.; now, 60lbs.

Quantity of super used: 35 to 45 lbs. per acre for the first two or three crops; later from 75 to 112 lbs.

Average annual rainfall: 15 inches.

Average wheat returns: 12 bushels.

General remarks: Deep cultivation in this district is not a success, the clay being but from three to seven inches below the surface. Fallowing is generally done with a heavy four to six furrow stump jump plough, the usual depth being from 2½ to 3½ inches. The first essential, water, is here in abundance. Bore as you will and as often as you will a magnificent supply of splendid water is struck at a depth ranging from 200 to 300 feet. Almost without exception every farmer has his own bore and bores. The pumping is all done by means of the windmill. This necessitates having plenty of storage room in case of an absence of wind for a few days. Most farmers have two 2,000 gallon tanks or one 3,000 on stands about 10ft. high so that the water may be run where desired. One of the great difficulties the mallee farmer has to contend with is the mallee shoots. Continual war must be waged against them for the first five to 10 years, according to the number of stubble fires got over the land. Heavy roads and long distances to cart wheat is another drawback. In the old days carting household necessities, horse feed, and fencing and building material, in some cases a distance of over 90 miles over indescribably bad tracks, was the biggest obstacle the pioneer had to face, and this only fell to the lot of the few who ventured here before the belated railway was an accomplished fact. Water carting from the Government well was another big handicap, but was tolerated only for a year or so until the farmer got his bearings. Very many different kinds of wheat have been tried and those almost exclusively grown at present are Yandilla King (an easy first), Federation, and Gluyas. One thing proved in the early days of this district, is that it pays to apply superphosphates even for the first crop. It might be thought, as it was here, that after a good burn of thick scrub and undergrowth the ashes would take the place of super. Experiments proved, however, that the application of only 40 lbs. of super. to the acre more than doubled the yield of land in the same paddock with no super.

A. W. KELLY, farmer (wheat and sheep), of Wonnaburee, Urania.

Situation of holdings: Hundred of Wauraltee, Yorke's Peninsula, and Hundred of Gordon, River Murray.

Area held: Wauraltee, 2,374 acres; Gordon, 2,500 acres.

Original cost of land: Right of purchase, Wauraltee, 12s. 6d.; Gordon, 5s.

Present value: Wauraltee, £5; Gordon, £2 10s.

Methods of clearing: My Wauraltee consisted of scattered mallee, ti-tree, sheoak, and bush, with spinifex between. It was mostly cut down with the axe, a small portion being rolled. It was all cleared about 20 or 30 years ago, so I cannot tell the cost.

Cultivation methods: Plough well and very shallow; in fact, as long as there is a decent seed bed of fine tilth it is sufficient. In the early days (during my father's time) a large portion of the land was ruined by deep ploughing. I always fallow a crop; not fallowed is too risky. Unfallowed land is all right in a wet favourable season, but in a dry season it is useless. On new land this does not apply quite as much, but even then fallowing is safer. Burning is essential. Unless the farmer kills the mallee bushes they will soon kill him.

Quantity of seed used: From 45 to 65 lbs. per acre; early varieties and late sorts thicker. The wheats favoured are Early Prolific, King's Early (red), Marshall's No. 3, and Federation.

Average rainfall: About 16 or 17 inches.

Average wheat returns: In 1914 about three bushels (drought year); 1915, 16 bushels; 1916-17, 20 bushels.

Water conservation: This is effected by means of dams and underground cement tanks. Water conservation costs a lot of money but it is absolutely necessary. Water carting from a distance will ruin any farmer. I have tried boring several times but without success. Cement tanks, although costly, are the best. A galvanised iron roof on horse stable and machinery sheds will pay for itself over and over again in water alone.

Description of land and methods of clearing: My farm in the Hundred of Gordon is in good rich land (sandy loam). The timber consisted of big mallee pine and sandalwood. All had to be cut with the axe. A lot had several big fires thorugh it, which killed out a quantity of the mallee, making the clearing very much cheaper. The cost of clearing where fires had not killed a lot of the timber cost about £1 per acre. I am not troubled much with mallee growing up, as the first clearing and burning kills nearly all.

Methods of cultivation: Sometimes I crop this or at least parts of this farm several years without a spell, and in good seasons it answers well; but land fallowed