Crop Scene Investigation - 32: What caused the mystery 'crop squares' in Perth County?

Monday, February 28, 2011

by BERNARD TOBIN

Crop circles – those mysterious flat patches found in farmers' fields – are sometimes the work of humans and sometimes go unexplained. The phenomenon has appeared a number of times in recent years in Ontario, and yet again in 2010.

In late October, certified professional crop consultant Mervyn Erb investigated a crop circle, or in this case a "crop square," found in a corn field near Topping in Perth County. He says he's never seen anything quite like this one.

The flattened area was actually square-shaped, covering 16 rows or about 40 feet wide and 45 feet long, recalls Erb, who's seen a number of man-made crop circles over the years. "When these are made by humans, what you tend to see is an organized mess that is produced by smashing plants down to the ground with your feet, boards and ropes," he says.

But what struck Erb about this field was the level of detail and precision. Standing in the square, he observed that every row had been flattened in the opposite direction. One row was flattened toward the north, followed by a row to the south, but on a slight yet consistent angle. And this was consistent across the field. He also noted that every two rows seemed to be laid into each other and almost intertwined.

"The way the rows went down, they did not deviate from row to row – they were almost exact," says Erb, who notes that the surprised farmer reported nothing out of the ordinary taking place. "I don't know if humans could do that, especially if they are working in the dark."

He was also puzzled by how many of the corn stalks had been snapped off near the ground at the second node, just above the brace roots. In some cases, the corn stalk, but not the roots, had popped out of the ground. "You can't go into a field and literally break corn off at its nodes," says Erb "When I looked at the stalks, I said you can't take corn in your hands and twist stalks like that and you're certainly not going to do it with boards or your feet."

The most peculiar feature, according to Erb, was how the rows divided or parted in a circular fashion at both ends of the square. "You would have to start somewhere on each and every row. To do it in a circular fashion would take some planning and work, but there were no footprints evident at all."

In his search for clues, Erb noted that some of the corn cobs on the ground had tapped into the soil moisture and were beginning to sprout. "That told me that the corn had been down about two weeks," Erb says. He wishes he had known about the site earlier – raccoon damage was evident and the site was getting messy – but he still believed the site would yield enough information for a proper evaluation.

"The soil was dark on top and there was plenty of moisture, so any footprints or implement tracks would have been detectable," Erb says. The only tracks he detected were made by the farmer and his family as they walked though the adjacent hay field and into the corner of the square to get a closer look at the levelled corn.

He also noted that the farmer had livestock, but there was no evidence of animal activity at the site.

Erb took additional photos of the corn, which are available for viewing on the Better Farming website (www.betterfarming.com). We invite readers to submit their solution to this puzzle. In an upcoming issue, we'll bring you Erb's theory about what happened and a collection of reader solutions. Be sure to get your answer to us by March 10 to make our publication deadline.

Send your solution to Better Farming at: rirwin@betterfarming.com or by fax to: 613-678-5993. All the answers will be pooled and one reader will win a Wireless Weather Station. BF