Random Question

[hells_half_acre]

Ok, I was cruising google maps the other day, and I came across all these fields that were in circles in the states. I mean...like, the crops were in circles. Like pies. I looked up in Canada, and we have them too. It's like someone scattered green coins across the country.

I was just wondering if anyone knew if it was a particular crop that people like to grow in circles, or if some people just liked to have circular fields. Where I grew up, people just grew things in rows...but then, mostly everyone just grows corn there. And in New Brunswick, everybody just grows potatoes.

It might be a pretty stupid question, but I am not a farmer - so I'm honestly just curious.

Comments

[auriliawestlake.livejournal.com]

Ah! I know exactly what you're talking about! The fields are in circles because the irrigation system used rotates around a central pivot-point (where the water line connects into the system). The water is carried over the crops in question through a giant sprinkler on wheels that creeps in a giant circle or semi-circle. If you look a little harder, you'll find those circle fields are only in areas which don't receive adequate rainfall for whatever crop they're trying to grow.

And yes, I seem to have an answer for everything. It's a gift.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Ah! That makes sense! So it's not just one crop that for some reason has to grow in a circle...it's any sort of crop that's being grown someplace that doesn't get enough rain. Thanks!

You are a very useful friend to have! :-)

[auriliawestlake.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, do you wanna know why I latched on to Show so hard?

It's because of that time when Dean called Sam a 'walking encyclopedia of weirdness' (if memory serves, it's in Roadkill). My mom and dad have both called me variations on that since I was eight years old. It all started when I got a book called 'Beyond Belief' from my third-grade teacher - it was all about weird shit like ball lightning, spontaneous human combustion, aliens, crop-circles, and so on. Thus, a lifelong love of acquiring seemingly-random trivia was born.

I've taken to calling myself a 'swiss-army geek' - I know at least a little bit about everything. Sometimes I even manage to amaze myself with the random nature of some of the crap housed between my ears. (For example, did you know that the average caterpillar has over two thousand muscles, while humans only have around seven hundred? Or that if you fill a black garbage bag with acetylene and toss it in the sun, it can explode with enough force to leave a three-foot crater? Or the fact that feathers originally evolved from scales on a parallel branch of evolution to hair follicles?) The only area I know next to nothing about is team sports - I never was into the whole jock-scene.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Ha, I was the same way when I was a teenager. Then university and grad school sort of forced all that stuff out of my head and replaced it with history and languages. :-P

Knowledge is awesome though! Especially when it is seemingly random. ;-)