A NEW glossy guide published by Kennet District Council is in danger of upsetting farmers by plugging the annual appearance of crop circles as a tourist attraction.

The Kennet Visitor Guide 2002 features on its cover a dramatic colour photograph of one of the most intricate crop formations ever to appear in Wiltshire.

The county is the most active area for the mysterious manifestations that appear annually in early summer, accompanied by a debate about whether they are man-made or the work of some extra-terrestrial force.

The cover picture shows a complex design, resembling a Catherine wheel of interlinking circles, that appeared on farmland at the foot of Milk Hill in Alton Barnes, near Marlborough.

Another crop circle is pictured inside the guide in a section headed Land of Mystery, Myth and Legend.

But both pictures and the accompanying text which enthuses about the area's "magnificent formations" received a frosty response from farmer Jeremy Margesson of Burderop, near Chiseldon. Last year he claimed the creators of crop circles were human and branded them as vandals.

"I shouldn't think any farmers are going to be glad to see crop circle being treated as a visitor attraction," he said.

"I certainly won't be pleased if tourists come round here looking for circles on my land."

His fields have been targeted in the past but he hopes they will escape the attentions of the circle creators this year. One field is now growing a crop of oil seed rape. Another is fallow under the set aside scheme for farmers who are paid to keep a field free of crops.

Crop circles have been found in various parts of Europe.

The first ones in Wiltshire appeared more than 10 years ago and some farmers have added to their income by charging people who wanted to go on their land to look at them. A few turned fields into car parks for visitors' vehicles.

Last year's foot and mouth disease emergency reduced the number of circles in the area, giving support to the theory that they are made by human beings who design them on graph paper and use sticks and pieces of wood on lengths of string to create them during the early hours of the morning.

But the previous year 70 of the circles appeared in Wiltshire. During the past decade hundreds of tourists, including movie star Goldie Hawn who stayed at a hotel near Swindon, have flocked to see them.

More than 200 people gave the subject their close attention at a Marlborough conference called Mysteries of the World.

The mystery element was diminished, however, by Matthew Williams of Bourton Lane, Bishops Cannings, who was fined £100 with £40 costs in November 2000 after admitting that he created a seven-pointed star in a field at West Overton near Marlborough the previous August.

Mr Margesson said he did not want visits from any more tourists like the Americans who trudged across his fields last year.

"They persisted in coming back and back again," he said.

Kennet Council spokeswoman Diana Ralls said the guide stresses that in most cases crop circles appear on private land and visitors should seek permission from the landowners to visit them.

"Tourism is very important to this area as a boost for its economy," she said.