Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1920-12-23
ALFALFA-AND F. D. coBURN

ALEALFA-AND F. d. COBURN
The reminder in the news dispatch.
es that Kansas is now the leading
state in the country in the produc-
ton of alfalfa, even though Nebraska
is making claim to having producer
a few more tons of alfalfa hay this
years, recalls the interesting history
of the beginning of the crop of Kansas
There was a time when alfalfa IN
Kansas was an experiment. Indeed
it would be all right to say thar there
was a time when alfalfa was joke
in Kansas When it was discovered"
the people laughed about it. The
newspapers cracked funnygraphs"
about it. They said: "Coburn has
discovered another "drouth killer
F. D. Coburn was then the secre-
tary of the state board of agrlcul-
ture There are young men and OLD
men in the state who can recall the
time when Mr. Coburn was attempt
ing to nurse the young infant, aifa1-
ia, thru the perilous days of its baby
hood It was such a laughable thing,
this discovery of a weed that would
send it's roots down through the dry
ground until they reached moisture.
Kansas photographers and humorists
reminded Mr.. Coburn of the man
who was returning from western
Kansas with the sign on wagon.
II have been living on a Western Kan
sas claim, forty miles from the near
est postoffice, twenty miles from my
nearest neighbor, fifty miles from a
railroad, two hundred miles from wa
ter and four miles from hell I'm
going back to my wife's folks
1Coburn should bring him back and
give him a bushel of alfalfa seed" the
punsters said. ssCoburn alfalfa is
guaranteed to go right thru the A.
mile station on its 200-mile journey
without getting scorched."
It was great fun they had with
Foster Dwight Coburn, the grand old
man of Kansas agriculture, in those
days. Still he kept the nursing bot
tie handy for his alfalfa infant. He
spoke for it to unbelievers and inf
dels. He proclaimed it's merits be-
fore scoffing crowds. He wrote let
tiers to the newspapers urging the
farmers to try alfalfa drought
resisting crop. He issued phamplets,
he sent out pictures showing alfalfa
IN all its stages of growth and devel-
opment. cit will cure everything
one newspaper writer said, efrom the
bots in horses to blackleg in the calves
according to old Doc. Coburn."
Now alfalfa is one of the leading
crops in Kansas, and Kansas is the
leading alfalfa state. It has done
all that Mr.. Coburn claimed it would
do. It has <swintered'' many Kansas
farmers after all other crops failed
It has paid off mortgages, and re
deemed the note at the bank. II has
provided pasture for the hogs in sum-
mer time and kept the cows going
through cold weather. 1t is no longer
an experiment in Kansas-it is an in
dustry. It has reached the dignity of
place in the <tvital Statistics of the
state. Kansas couldn't keep house
without it.
And one cannot think of alfalfa
in Kansas without thinking of F. d.
Coburn. Kansas never will think of
alfalfa without remembering the ser
vices that Mr.. Coburn rendered to
the state in obtaining recognition for
it. 1t is an evergreen monument to
his name and to his public services.
It is not all that he has accomplished,
Of course, but blessings on his de-
voted head, he kept the infant alive
when Kansas thought the child was
not worth saving He has lived to
see it become one of the chief products
of the state, and fulfill all his pre-
| dictions for its possibiEties-Kan-
sas City Star.