The news regularly appears in the media about strange drawings in the fields, so people have long ceased to take this phenomenon seriously. Yes, often huge patterns on the field are just the result of the work of enthusiasts, and not proof that intelligent life forms from distant (well, or close) galaxies have visited our planet. But, it is worth noting that the first mention of crop circles began to appear long before this term came into use.
A news pamphlet with the headline "The Devil's Mower or a Strange Phenomenon in Hertfordshire" from 1678 describes the occurrence of a circle in a field in Hertfordshire, England.
In 1913, a British folklorist published an article describing the case.
It said that a farmer had bargained with a poor villager to mow three and a half acres of oats. The mower asked too many oats for his work, and the farmer refused his services, declaring in anger that the devil would rather distort his entire field than he would pay such a price.
Something really strange was happening that night. The field seemed to be on fire, but in the morning the farmer discovered that the oats were not burnt at all, but only mowed and neatly folded. Allegedly, not a single person could do this, moreover, overnight.
The farmer said that at night he saw strange lights over the field. Moreover, all these oddities frightened him so much that he did not even want to collect the cut oats.
In 1686, Robert Plot, professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford, referred to geometric shapes in the fields in his study of Staffordshire Natural History.
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In the course of research, the scientist found that the earth under the circles was significantly filled with a fruitful sulfuric substance. The effect could be seen from the very first harvest, although the quality of soil fertilization appeared a little later. The raft believed that the circles were created by lightning or some kind of force during a thunderstorm.
Moreover, in the modern era, the first formation of a circle on the field dates back to 1972. Then a strange phenomenon was observed by two residents of England - Arthur Shuttlewood and Bruce Bond. As eyewitnesses later said, at night they sat on a hill, hoping to see one of those UFOs that were allegedly often observed in the area, which is why it became a favorite place for ufologists. At the same time, instead of strange lights in the sky, they saw something different. A hundred feet away, some of the ears fell like a fan, forming an even circle.
Of course, people create many circles in our time. For example, in 1991, Douglas Bauer and David Chorley stated that they had done more than 250 crop circles with a rope and a stick since the 78th year.
Hoaxes have become so widespread that it is now almost impossible to distinguish real anomalies from fakes.