THE belief that crop patterns are some sort of coded message to mankind gained a little more credibility in some quarters this week.

The latest pattern to appear in a field in the Pewsey Vale is said to be very similar to the design of a transistor invented 100 years ago.

Could it be, researchers are asking, that the new shape in farmer Tim Carson's field at Alton Barnes is some sort of cryptic clue to understanding what the phenomena is all about.

To Mr Carson it's no more than a nuisance and a considerable area of a field of wheat laid flat that he will not be able to harvest.

In common with many other Wiltshire farmers Mr Carson wishes he could find a cure for the pest that blights his land every summer.

Almost every year since 1990 his farm at Alton Barnes has been plagued by the summer phenomenon of crop patterns.

The only year in the last 14 that Mr Carson has not been targeted by the mysterious pattern makers, be they alien or human, was 1993.

This year is no exception, and the formations are back. There are two new formations on the Carson's land that are exciting the so-called researchers but causing concern for the farmers.

Mr Carson, a former chairman of Wiltshire National Farmers Union, was away from the farm and on a visit to Ireland at the weekend when two huge formations appeared in his fields, both of them about 100 metres long.

He remains open minded about what or who creates the patterns sand said: "I really don't have a theory about how they are caused."

However, what Mr Carson does know, and so does every farmer who gets attention from the circle makers, is that they cost them money in destroyed crops.

About 1,500 of the 2,500 acres the Carsons farm under the name of E & Ag Stratton are producing cereals this year.

As well as the crops crushed by the circle makers, probably more damage to standing corn is caused by the subsequent wave of visitors.

Mr Carson said: "We just find the patterns and the visitors they attract a damned nuisance."

The Carsons have put requests on most of the crop circle web sites imploring visitors to stay away or at least view the patterns from a distance and not cause further damage by going in the fields.

Within minutes of the discovery of a new crop formation the details are available on dozens of websites leading to a rush of visitors.

Local flyers including the Wiltshire Microlight Centre at Yatesbury take aerial photographs of new formations which are on websites within hours of them appearing.

Quite a few American, Japanese and continental crop circle investigators spend their summers in the UK so that they can visit and inspect the latest patterns.

Some crop circle devotees are claiming that the latest pattern that appeared on the Carsons' farm at Milk Hill is one of the most intriguing for years.

While some enthusiasts go as far as to claim it is a coded message from another world, others claim it's a diagram of the first electrical transistor invented 100 years ago by a Croatian-Serb called Nikola Tesla, who had emigrated to the USA in 1984 at the age of 28.

Tim Carson said he had never heard of the inventor.

He also said he could not fathom out why a 100-year-old invention should be replicated in his fields.

His more down to earth concern was that once again he has lost a significant area of valuable wheat and could lose more if too many visitors trample across his fields.

Crop circle writer, Lucy Pringle, who lives in Hampshire, was one of the first people to photograph the new shape in Mr Carson's field and she dismissed any suggestion of it being an alien message.

Mrs Pringle has been researching crop circles for more than 15 years and has written a number of books about them.

She said: "I don't know what a transistor looks like.

"To me the shape is more like an orrery, a clockwork model of the solar system."

Mrs Pringle said she was convinced that some of the weird and wonderful crop formations were made by some sort of atmospheric phenomenon.

She said: "I believe that to be the cause, although it does not explain the shapes behind it.

"That is the stumbling block we have reached."

The writer said it was apparent that many were man-made.

But, she said, she doubted if even a large team of people could have produced a such a large pattern as found in Mr Carson's fields in the few hours of darkness available at this time of year.

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