76 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of animals are not too great for the area, as the leaves and stems grow 

 very rapidly after the root has become thoroughly established. It might 

 also be said that when one leaf is eaten off two appear in its place. 



Chairman: We would be glad to hear from any one on this 

 question. If there is no one who desires to discuss the paper, we 

 will proceed to the next, which is a paper entitled "The Louisiana 

 Exposition, 1904," by J. H. Trewin, mjember of the Iowa Cora- 

 mission, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (The author not being present, the 

 paper was read by Mr. F. R. Conaway.) 



Me. Conaway: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Conven- 

 tion : I am very sorry that Senator Trewin cannot be present this 

 afternoon. I have just received a letter from him, stating that 

 owing to some very important cases in court, he could not be here, 

 and asking me to read his paper, which I will proceed to do. 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION, 1904. 



J. E. Trewin, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 



The hardy, adventuresome and determined American pioneers, who 

 at the close of the Revolution invaded and commenced to subdue the wil- 

 derness to the east of the Mississippi, brought about an event in the history 

 of our country second only in importance to the gaining of independence. 

 By the treaty of 1773 the American and British had stipulated that "the 

 navigation of the River Mississippi from its source to the ocean shall 

 forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citi- 

 zens of the United States." But Spain controlling both sides of the lower 

 Mississippi denied free navigation of that river to tne western Americans, 

 while the latter considered it their "God given highway to the sea and 

 to civilization." Trade restrictions were imposed by Spain, vessels and 

 cargoes were confiscated and crews imprisoned. The inhabitants became 

 enraged and threatened invasion and the forcible establishment of their 

 right of free navigation of the river. 



In June, 1775, Washington wrote of the situation: "The emigration 

 to the waters of the Mississippi is astonishingly great and chiefly of a 

 description of people who are not very subordinate to the law and con- 

 stitution of the state they go from. "Whether the prohibition of the 

 Spaniards is just or unjust, politic or impolitic it will be with difficulty 

 that the people of this class can be restrained in the enjoyment of natural 

 advantages." 



Washington, Livingston, Hamilton, Jefferson and other early states- 

 men and patriots recognized the necessity of an open river, but the na- 

 tion was too weak to do more than anxiously wait the rapidly changing 

 conditions in European affairs. Hamilton said in 1799, "I have long been 

 in the habit of considering the acquisition of the Floridas and Louisiana 



