Crop Circles Go Way Back | THE CONVERSATION

Anybody who knows crop circle lore knows about this, but, since many of you aren’t circle historians, I’m passing along what always is cited as the first irrefutable evidence of the appearance of crop circles, way before the modern era. Someone sent me this post about it from the BBC’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy forum :

Crop circles are not a new phenomenon. There are 17th Century woodcuts that record the observation of what appears to be crop circles. One such woodcut, entitled The Devil Mower, appeared in a Hertfordshire newspaper dated 22 August, 1678. The article described the apparition overnight of a strange design in a field of oats, so neatly pressed that “no mortal man was able to do the like”, which was attributed to “the devil or some infernal spirit “. By convoluted logic this apparition confirmed the existence of God, since, it was argued, if devils have a Hell then there must be a Heaven and a God.

Here is what it says:

Being a True Relation of a Farmer, who Bargaining with a Poor Mower, about the Cutting down Three Half Acres of Oats: upon the Mower’s asking too much, the Farmer swore That the Devil should Mow it rather than He. And so it fell out, that very Night, the Crop of Oat shew’d as if it had been all of a flame: but next Morning appear’d so neatly mow’d by the Devil or some Infernal Spirit, that no Mortal Man was able to do the like. Also, How the said Oats ly now in the Field, and the Owner has not Power to fetch them away. Liscensed, August 22nd, 1678.