The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-07-24
DAISIES ABOUND HERE ACRES ARE COVERED
They Are Given Away but Grow as Fast as
 Picked.

A field of daisies, millions and mil lions of them-daisies that can not be exterminated and which are growing. thicker and thicker each year-tliis is the property of Jacob Basey, whose farm lies five miles southeast of Kan sas City. The daisies came to his farm by accident and they refuse to leave. He has spent nioney in an effort to kill them, but theyAcling tenaciously to the soil and now he has abandoned 1t to them.
 Basey Is well-to-do farmer. He owns 100 acres of land in the vicinity of his home and the Marlborough car line passes through his holdings. He has fields and timbered land and mea- dows with herds grazing upon them. Blue grass is ankle deep on his grazing land and wild flowers grow in abund- ance About eight years ago the grass on a thirty" he owned, in a valley by little stream, seemed thin and sparse. Bare spots showed on the ground
 lHGIpt he said, and bring up more grass.
 He placed an order with a firm in the East for seed. It came and when the season was right he sowed 1t over the thrty-acre tract. And then he waited. The bare spots began showing sprouts They crept from the ground and expanded into curious looking weeds. They grew into stems with leaves on one side. None resembled the sprout of the grass blade.
 As the summer advanced the stems grew into blossoms-litle white blos- soms with yellow centers. The green of the field was hidden by the white of the blossoms. It was just one great waving mass of flowers daisies. The firm which had received the order for grass seed either sent the pure seed l of the daisies or grass seed in which the flower seed predominated Mr. l Basey moved the daisies down. They grew up again. He turned the mea- dow into a cornfleld. The daisies out grew the corn. He set boys to work pulling them up by the roots On the millions and millions of flowers which grew the work of the boys made no impression.
 A year or two ago the public was in- vited to the farm to help itself to daisies. Hundreds and hundreds jump ed at the chance,
 Pull them up by the roots, break them off, chop them down-do any, thing you like the instructions were. And so the visitors went home with hands, arms and baskets full-buggy loads. Houses were decorated. churches decorated--daisies were planted on graves in the cemeteries and in the flower beds about the homes in Kansas City. But still the daisies multiplied. And now not only have they covered the whole of the thirty acres, but they have crept across into neighboring fields and threaten to overrun them. MT, Basey has giv- en up the fight. The land is leased to Ralph Keck of 1416 Charlotte street MT. Kleck has invited the public to the daisy farm, charging ten cents for the privilege of going in and picking all the daisies that can be carried away, be it a handful or a wagon load
 The daisies were ready to pull about i Decoration day" Mir. Keck said a short time ago. q placed a little advertise ment in the Star and between fifty and a hundred persons have been coming l here week days, and from 150 to 200 every Sunday. They have carried away millions of daisies, but the number seems scarcely diminished All ovel Kansas City I have seen them trans. planted. But on the sides of these
 hills, in the hollows and over the high. CT ground, we have daisies that win bt here for years. The only way to gel rid of them is to pull them up bodily by the roots, and it would take al army to accomplish the task. MT. Ba- J sey plowed them up time and again