unable to report a better yield in any one year of more than 21½ cwt. of hay per acre. This, no doubt, is largely due to the fact that the farmers have nor been practising the fallow system and using ferilisers, and they go on to say that the average quality of land of the whole district is distinctly lower than the Grass Patch farm, the record yield being 21½ cwt., covering 14 years. Water.—The inspectors have no doubt that the water difficulty will be a very serious matter for farmers, and give as their reason for this statement that the land is very porous, the salt water level appears to be rather close to the surface, and the fact that from Lake View to 16 miles north of Esperance, although the traffic is very small, the travelling public and the settlers are dependent on condensers for their supply, which certainly confirms their opinion that fresh water will not be obtained by sinking, and there are no gullies or watercourses over the whole of this large mallee belt ; and what to me is more discouraging is that in occasional depressions, locally designated lagoons or fresh water swamps, none appear to have had any water in them for the past 10 or 12 years. From a railway point of view, also, the water problem appears to be more serious, as the very best is always required for locomotive boilers. The conflicting accounts of the Esperance Harbour as a safe port for the shipment of wheat for export in large vessels also has made me feel that caution is needed before one adds his name to a recommendation which may land this State in an expenditure that is not yet justified—for, to my mind, the land should be proved as to its wheat producing power and the water supply settled beyond doubt, as, without the latter it would be quite impossible to profitably work this mallee area. This brings me then to what I think should be done, and at once, because if it can be proved that the land will yield profitable wheat crops and water can be procured at moderate cost, a railway line 60 or 70 miles towards Norseman and spur lines east and west when require to provide facilities for economic working will be justified, as in this particular locality; we would then settle one of the largest tracts of virgin country