Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 154, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1915 — Alfalfa Solves the Weed Problem for Wichita [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Alfalfa Solves the Weed Problem for Wichita

WICHITA, KAN.—When, a year ago, Wichita officials found that weeds were going to take possession of a vacant plot as well as neglected city lots, a plan was evolved by which ft could be averted. A man was engaged

to prepare the lots for alfalfa at a cost of 50 cents to the owner, to plow, harrow and .keep mowed the crops, and the weeds were obliterated in every instance. Many Wichita lots that otherwise would have been rank with unwelcome verdure, were turned Into a profitable small hay meadow. The fifty cents that the city collected from the land owners was given to the man who prepared the land and he was well recompensed. The alfalfa thus raised was utilised in many

ways by the owners and It made Itself more than pay for its raising. Weeds were unknown in Wichita last year where the owners of property bargained with the alfalfa man. And there was the fragrant odor from the growing al'alfa. This year, while Wichita city officials named no official alfalfa sower, the man who last year did the work has put in many alfalfa crops of small size and the weeds have been choked off as a result. The first cutting gave Wichitathe odor of a great big hay field. It is estimated that more than two thousand tons of alfalfa were cut from the numerous small plots in Wichita and as the price is high it represented a goodly sum. In many cases men who raise home-grown alfalfa feed the crop to the cow or horses and chickens. Hundreds of small transfer men who have a horse and a cow have found growing alfalfa on a small scale very profitable.