Butler County KS Archives News.....Strange Accident Befell John Sells January 24, 1902
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Peggy Luce pegsue59@cox.net and   December 11, 2006, 4:27 pm

Walnut Valley Times,  Volume XXXIII, Number 1 January 24, 1902
A strange accident befell John Sells yesterday. While driving through his 
alfalfa field his team suddently sank into the ground a distance of fourteen 
feet, the fore wheels of the wagon and the wagon box piling in on top of the 
team. Sells jumped but slide down beside the off horse escaping injury 
excepting a severe shaking up. The team was dug out safely. The cause was one 
of the sinks peculair to alfalfa fields. These are possibly caused by two 
things, gophers which make their runs next the ground extending them to their 
pockets or storage mounds where the roots of the alfalfa are cut off and the 
plants die, the roots rotting and leaving great holes in the subsoil. The runs 
lead the water to the mounds and it finds its way through the holes left by the 
decayed alfalfa roots into a subterraneau outlet, gradually carrying away the 
under soil and leaving a cave into which breaks any considerable weight on the 
surface. Many farmers have observed small sunken places in their alfalfa fields 
undoubtedly caused by gophers and heavy rains.

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