6.  1678 pamphlet on the "Mowing-Devil".The
earliest recorded image resembling a crop circle
is depicted in a 17th century English woodcut
called the Mowing-Devil.

7.  The pamphlet containing the image states that
the farmer, disgusted at the wage his mower was
demanding for his work, insisted that he would
rather have "the devil himself" perform the task.

8.  A historical report of crop circles, republished
(from Nature, 1880)[4][5] in January 2000
Journal of Meteorology[6] describes the 1880
investigations by amateur scientist John Rand
Capron:

9.  The storms about this part of Surrey have been lately
local and violent, and the effects produced in some
instances curious. Visiting a neighbour's farm on
Wednesday evening (21st), we found a field of standing
wheat considerably knocked about, not as an entirety,
but in patches forming, as viewed from a distance,
circular spots....I could not trace locally any
circumstances accounting for the peculiar forms of the
patches in the field, nor indicating whether it was wind
or rain, or both combined, which had caused them,
beyond the general evidence everywhere of heavy
rainfall. They were suggestive to me of some cyclonic
wind action

10.  Most historical accounts of crop circles are anecdotal,
in some cases describing crops being cut or burnt
rather than flattened.[8][9][10] One report given in 1966
from the town of Tully, Queensland, Australia, came
from a sugar cane farmer who said he witnessed a
saucer-shaped craft rise 30 or 40 feet (12 m) up from a
swamp and then fly away. When he went to investigate
the location where he thought the saucer had landed, he
found the reeds intricately woven in a clockwise fashion
on top of the water. Reportedly, the woven reeds are
said to have been able to hold the weight of 10 men.

11.  Crop circles arose public attention in the late 1970s as
many circles began appearing throughout the English
countryside. This phenomenon became widely known
in the late 1980s, after the media started to report crop
circles in Hampshire and Wiltshire. To date,
approximately 10,000 crop circles have been reported
internationally, from locations such as the former
Soviet Union, the UK, Japan, the U.S. and Canada.
Skeptics note a correlation between crop circles, recent
media coverage, and the absence of fencing and/or
anti-trespassing legislation.

12.  Although farmers have expressed concern at the
damage caused to their crops, local response to
the appearance of crop circles can be
enthusiastic, with locals taking advantage of the
increase of tourism and visits from scientists,
crop circle researchers, and individuals seeking
spiritual experiences.[14] The market for crop-
circle interest has consequently generated bus or
helicopter tours of circle sites, walking tours, T-
shirts and book sales.

13.  The last decade has witnessed crop formations
with increased size and complexity of form,
some featuring as many as 2000 different shapes,
[15] and some incorporating complex
mathematical and scientific characteristics.

14.  [edit] Bower and ChorleyIn 1991, self-professed pranksters Doug
Bower and Dave Chorley made headlines claiming it was they
who started the phenomenon in 1978 with the use of simple
tools consisting of a plank of wood, rope, and a baseball cap
fitted with a loop of wire to help them walk in a straight line.
Inspired by Australian crop circle accounts from 1966, Doug and
Dave reportedly made more than 200 crop circles from 1978–
1991 and claimed to be responsible for most if not all circles
made prior to 1987.[19][20][21] After their announcement, in a
demonstration the two men made a crop circle in one hour.
[citation needed] Despite general acceptance of their story, crop
circle researchers remain skeptical of many of their claims.[21]
[22][23] Since their revelation, crop formations have continued to
appear each year, often in greater number, size, and complexity.

15.  Art and businessSince the early 1990s the UK
arts collective founded by artists Rod Dickinson
and John Lundberg (and subsequently includes
artists Wil Russell and Rob Irving), named the
Circlemakers, have been creating some crop
circles in the UK and around the world both as
part of their art practice and for commercial
clients.

16.  On the night of July 11–12, 1992, a crop-circle
making competition, for a prize of several
thousand UK pounds (partly funded by the
Arthur Koestler Foundation), was held in
Berkshire. The winning entry was produced by
three Westland Helicopters engineers, using
rope, PVC pipe, a trestle and a ladder. Another
competitor used a small garden roller, a plank
and some rope.

17.  In 2002, Discovery Channel commissioned five
aeronautics and astronautics graduate students
from MIT to create crop circles of their own,
aiming to duplicate some of the features claimed
to distinguish "real" crop circles from the known
fakes such as those created by Bower and
Chorley. The creation of the circle was recorded
and used in the Discovery Channel documentary
Crop Circles: Mysteries in the Fields.

18.  implicationsIn 1992 Hungarian youths Gábor Takács and
Róbert Dallos, both then 17, were the first people to face legal
action after creating a crop circle. Takács and Dallos, of the St.
Stephen Agricultural Technicum, a high school in Hungary
specializing in agriculture, created a 36-metre (118 ft) diameter
crop circle in a wheat field near Székesfehérvár, 43 miles (69 km)
southwest of Budapest, on June 8, 1992. On September 3, the
pair appeared on Hungarian TV and exposed the circle as a hoax,
showing photos of the field before and after the circle was made.
As a result, Aranykalász Co., the owners of the land, sued the
youngsters for 630,000 Ft (approximately US$3,000) in damages.
The presiding judge ruled that the students were only responsible
for the damage caused in the circle itself, amounting to about
6,000 Ft (approximately US$30), and that 99% of the damage to
the crops was caused by the thousands of visitors who flocked
to Székesfehérvár following the media's promotion of the circle.
The fine was eventually paid by the TV show, as were the
students' legal fees.[citation needed]

19.  In 2000, Matthew Williams became the first man
in the UK to be arrested for causing criminal
damage after making a crop circle near Devizes.

20.  ExplanationsFormations usually are made
overnight, but have also been made during the
day. While it is not known how all crop circles
are formed, various theories have been put forth
ranging from natural phenomenon and man-
made hoaxes, to the paranormal and even
animals.

21.  Man-madeThe most widely known method for a
person or group to construct a crop formation
is to tie one end of a rope to an anchor point,
and the other end to a board which is used to
crush the plants. Some crop formations are paid
for by companies who use them as advertising.
[32] As an explanation of some of the more
complex formations, physicists have suggested
the use of GPS, lasers, and portable microwave
generators.

22.  WeatherSome have suggested crop circles are the result
of extraordinary meteorological phenomena ranging
from freak tornadoes to ball lightning.[35] The first
known published reference to the possibility of crop
formations being the result of natural phenomena dates
back to 1880 in which investigator and amateur scientist
John Rand Capron theorized the formations may have
been the product of "cyclonic wind action..." [6][7]
Physicist Stephen Hawking expressed the opinion in
1992 that, "Corn circles are either hoaxes or formed by
vortex movement of air".

23.  Sketch of a 'spaceship' creating crop circles, sent
to UK Ministry of Defence circa 1998.Since
appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles
have become the subject of speculation by
various paranormal, ufological, and anomalistic
investigators ranging from proposals that they
were created by bizarre meteorological
phenomena to messages from extraterrestrial
beings.

24.  The location of many crop circles near ancient
sites such as Stonehenge, barrows, and chalk
horses has led many New Age belief systems to
incorporate crop circles, speculating their
existence in relation to ley lines.[38][41][42]

25.  Some have related crop circles to the Gaia
hypothesis, alleging that "Gaia", the earth, is
actually alive and that crop circles are messages
or responses to stimuli such as global warming
and human pollution. It asserts that the earth
may be modeled as if a single super-organism, in
that earthly components (e.g. biota, climate,
temperature, sunlight, etc.) influence each other
and are organized to function and develop as a
whole.