ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 321 



quired the hackman. "I don't see anything remarkable 

 about it; it has to; there is nothing to hinder it," said 

 Pat. 



What a splendid galaxy of stars was added to our flag ! 

 Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, 

 Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, most of Colorado, 

 Montana, and Wyoming, and all of Oklahoma and the 

 Indian Territory have been carved out of the land ceded 

 in the memorable treaty. The population in 1900 was 

 nearly 15,000,000. Although the price was deemed some- 

 thing startling, for $15,000,000 was a great sum in those 

 days, today there are but few counties in Iowa whose as- 

 sessment for taxation does not show a valuation of more 

 than the whole cost of the Louisiana Purchase, and yet 

 possibly some of the estimates of value have been given 

 to the assessors with becoming modesty by the owners. 



St. Louis alone represents a valuation of $376,907,595. 



THE LIMESTONE SOIL AND ITS EENEWAL 



Much of the Louisiana Purchase is underlaid with lime- 

 stone, which is a most enduring foundation of fertility. 

 The soil of the state of Iowa, for example, nearly all is 

 underlaid by a thousand feet of solid limestone. 



The great glacier cap which ages ago covered all the 

 land from near the Missouri line to the Pole broke up 

 the strata and produced the joint clay, thus opening up 

 the passageway for the water from the surface to the 

 solid rock. When the season is excessively wet, as in 

 1902, the water has free access and searches the crevices 

 in the rocks in the depths below. When it is too dry cap- 

 illary attraction draws the moisture from beneath, and so 

 by this simple provision of nature the extremes of 

 drought and flood are minimized in their effect, and so we 

 thank the glaciers for benefits accruing so long after they 

 have disappeared ; but no doubt if man had then appeared 



