Mr. Adams- I speak of it as a fact established by experiment. Mr. Jordan From my experience, the most successful plan is to plant the strawberries in rows three to three and one-half feet apart, and let them be, keeping the middles clean. Cultivate them in the fall, or latter part of summer, thoroughly, and then mulch them just as the ground freezes in the fall. Rake the straw off of the plants in the spring, and leave it on these vacant places until the fruit is gathered. Then take off all this straw and run a five toothed cultivator through the patch, and clean it out in good shape.

Mr. Adams- The effect of this barning is to prevent the plant from running in a dry season. Last season our plants run but very little, while the season before, treated in exactly the same manner, they made numerous runners.

Mr. Tuttle I have mulched with almost everything, but I have found the best mulching is corn stalks, laid not in bunches but straight, so as to be even all over the ground, thick enough so that you cannot see any of the plants. I tried that, and thought of course that I had got to move the stalks in the spring; and in the spring commenced moving them. I didn't finish it; I left it for a few days, and when I went back to do the remainder of the work, I found the strawberries growing up through them, and I left them there. The vines were much better, and the fruit was larger, and the drouth had no effect on them at all. Those very stalks laid on them for the next winter; and the next winter they were partially decayed, so that they made a good mulch. ing for two years. The new strawberry that we are growing, we do not have any weeds. We let the strawberry take care of the weeds after the first year. That is the Crescent Seedling. I saw the original bed. It has been fruited five years, bearing heavy crops, and entirely clean from weeds.

A voice - How do they bear after they get so thick and matted?

Mr Tuttle They told me that after they stood three years that they couldn't see any difference. I don't know that there was a difference in the bearing between the first year and the third year. And they claim now that the fifth year it bore just as well as any

time.

And the man said not one single dollar's worth of labor has been put out on a third of an acre since the first year.

Mr. Kellogg I approve anything any one says on this question on either side. I don't care whether it is up hill or down. One man says, put on the mulching in the fall, and take it all off in the spring; you want to leave it on and let the plants come up through it to protect the berries and weeds. After fruiting, I want that mulching out of the way. Mr. Adams' plan of renovating the old bed is all right. I tried it once, and I had a finer picking of strawberries from that ground than I had ever taking from the two years of its best fruiting.

A year ago last spring I set out 800 plants in one body. The rows are nineteen rods long and four feet apart. The last row had ninety-nine plants. The third picking on that row was a hundred quarts. These were mulched with sawdust.

That

mulching was not taken off. some mulched and some not. I propose to see whether they will mulch themselves or not, and next season I can tell you whether the end of the patch that is not mulched is dead or alive. The question now is, how shall I pick the fruit next season? It will be six inches deep.

They are a solid mass of vines,

Mr. Adams Can this gentleman recommend the Crescent Seedling for a market berry for shipment five hundred miles, in comparison with other leading varieties?

Mr. Tuttle I found no difficulty in marketing and shipping the Crescent Seedling. I heard no complaint. We shipped to St. Paul. That was the furthest place shipped. The Crescent Seedling appeared to be quite as hard a berry as the Wilson. That is more juicy, yet I would rather put Crescent Seedlings on the market and send them five hundred miles, than to put the Wilson on the market and send them five hundred miles and have them out forty-eight hours. I can put the Crescent Seedling beside the Wilson after they have been picked forty-eight hours, and spoil the sale of the Wilson entirely. As a market berry, I do not know of anything better.

Mr. Adams- From what little I know of the subject, I differ with the gentleman about the merits of this berry. We haven't

raised it very extensively ourselves, but I have witnessed its growth and examined the berry very closely, and it is impossible to see, from the structure of the berry, how it is going to endure shipment like some other varieties. The Crescent Seedling is not a large berry. On the plantation I looked at last summer, the berries had run together, and the fruitage was not over one-half the size of the Wilson.

Mr. Tuttle My berries will average larger than the Wilson. Adjourned to 7:30 P. M.

Convention opened pursuant to adjournment, Hon. N. D. Fratt presiding.

TAXATION.

BY REV. G. E. GORDON, MILWAUKEE.

I. Postulates, or the things which must be assumed without

proofs.

(A.) It must be taken for granted:

(a.) That mankind cannot be considered as out of

society. Each man and all men are born

members of society with duties derived from, and owed to, the state.

(6.) That whatever personal rights there may be, "they can be realized only in, and by means of, the state."

(c.) That in the realization of all individual rights, due regard must be paid to the rights of all others.

(B.) It must also be taken for granted:

(a.) That the state exists only for the interests of

man as a mass.

(b.) That no foundation exists for privilege; that is, for the enjoyment of rights or benefits by a few which are denied to the many, or of immunities by many which are denied to the

17-W. S. A. S.

mass.

(c.) That the state function consists in the protection of personal rights without injustice and in

the promotion of general rights without partiality.

(C) The authority of the state is the consension of the majority of individual persons. The sanction of it

is exact justice.

II. Predicates; or the things which are affirmed or denied on the basis of the foregoing postulates.

(4.) Rights and duties are reciprocal. There is no right that does not call for a precise corresponding duty; and no duty that does not exact a corresponding right. What the state owes the individual is equiv. alent to what the individual owes the state, and vice

versa.

(B.) The aim of governments is to constitute a commonwealth. The republic is a form of government where the people control the power. The commonwealth is a republic in which the "weal" or good of all is aimed at as the end of government.

(C) The foundation of the commonwealth lies in the sense of "honor." Honor is that high standard of public sentiment whereby justice is rendered and exacted.

"The finest sense

Of justice which the human mind can frame,
Intent each lurking frailty to disclaim.
And guard the way of life from all offense
Suffered or done."

Wordsworth.

If these general principles are too true to need proof, it will be readily admitted by all honorable minds that the state is bound to protect all persons and property within its borders to the full extent of its function, and that all persons are bound to contribute to the state for such protection. The function of the state is the protection of persons and property by its army, police, courts, schools and public benevolence. The right of the state includes taxation of persons and property for this end. The authority to levy taxes lies

in the common consent of the peoples. The sanction for taxation reposes in the principle of exact justice. The equity of taxation depends upon the keenness of the public honor.

We ask four questions:

I. What portion of private property may be claimed by the state?

II. How should such a levy be made? III. Upon what should it be levied?

IV. What is equal taxation?

I. What portion of private property may be claimed by the state?

So much only as may be needed for the full protection of persons and property.

We mean by the full protection of persons and property, first, the direct protection of country and coasts by armies and navies; second, the protection of life, property, and reputation of citizens of every class by the judicial, legislative and executive officers of government; third, the indirect protection afforded by the promotion of intelligence and morality; fourth, the increased advantage to life, person and property arising from national protection of commercial and financial interests; and fifth, the assistance rendered by government to society in the promotion of such enterprises as are only possible to man in his collective capacity.

So much then of private property may be claimed by the state as may be rightfully used for such ends. But no more. Therefore, with Adam Smith, "Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible over and above what it actually brings into the treasury of the state."

The machinery for tax levy should be as simple as possible. No production should be taxed so as to make it unprofitable to the maker. No duties should be heavy enough to induce men to smuggle, or to evade payment by fraudulent returns. No taxing methods should be inquisitorial or arbitrary. The state may rightfully levy taxes sufficient to pay its officials such fair remuneration as will provide against the danger of common peculation and bribe; to place upon its bench judges of the highest