Well, speaking as someone who has actually owned a farm, I can say that the odd solitary trees in the middle of our Kansas wheatfields were places that Grand-dad used to work on the old Ford tractor when it would periodically break down far from the garage. That’s why he was refered to as a “shade-tree mechanic.”
When I was a boy working on my Granddad’s farm in the heat of the Virginia panhandle, you would stick your cooler of water under the tree. I would often have a mattock and some other items and much better to leave them in the shade lest you burn your hands touching it. It was perfect for taking periodic breaks, much cooler than being in the shadow of hot machinery. Enclosed air-conditioned cabs were just coming out back then and almost nobody had them. So in our case, those trees were something that made life a little more bearable, and I suspect that is why they are there in general.
Now, in our new-fangled fancy-shmancy air-conditioned age, the trees are there because no-one ever bothered to get rid of them. On a farm, you never have extra time for stuff like this. You will never hear someone on a farm say: “Should we fix this axle so we can get the hay in before it rains, or should we spend a couple of days cutting down that old tree in the middle of the 30 acre field?” There is always more important work to be done.
I wish I could find a link to that photo of a Jenny crashed in a lone tree.
Might be the same one, but from a different angle from the one I have on my wall. Hard to tell, it being a thumbnail. It’s the same one though, that they have at Sporty’s (bottom left).
Across the US, particularly on old farms in the midwest and Pennsylvania, passersby will often notice a solitary tree in the middle of large crop field. These are commonly thought to be used as a welcome shade respite from the hot sun for farmers to rest. My now passed father grew up on a farm in northeastern Ohio and his father was the first to leave the old family farm (they were Church of the Brethren - commonly referred to as Amish) in western Pennsylvania since the 1700’s. My grandfather’s explanation to me was that tree was referred to as the Clearing Tree[/U], (I can’t recall the German name that he said) used by the farmers as the last, central tree used as the base to which a block and tackle were anchored and used with a team of horses to clear the final few other trees from a new field. Working from the outside edges of a field inward, like a game of pegs, there was always one last tree left standing and it would be too heavy to move without an anchor for the final blocking and tackling to remove that tree. Additionally, it was favorable to have one shady spot in a hot field - but it wasn’t the primary reason. Drive through central Pennsylvania and Ohio and you’ll notice lots of fields with these lone Clearing Trees. It’s a nice link to our pre-machine-age agrarian history. Pass it on to your children as a nice learning moment on your next road trip.
See post #32
I remember traveling to The Farm and saw a monstrous contraption there for remove stumps. It looked like a tripod of big logs and in the center was a screw-like device. The description said they would dig around the stump until they could get some kind of straps underneath or around it (I can’t remember what they used then) and then they’d hook up an available beast of burden to turn the screw and pull the stump up and out.
I would imagine the device being used only if they really, really, really needed a tree gone from an area. I can’t imagine anyone bothering to drag it out into a big field to remove the last tree though.
I was unable to find an image of the device but it was quite impressive.
random trees might grow indicating a rock.
a last remaining winch anchor is a very good possibility, though that could be cut and the stump burned or rotted.
a shade tree for that field seems likely for those who farmed exposed to the elements.
but as i read the thread i noticed one possibility not mentioned was to protect an old homestead grave. if the dead are disturbed they might … well you know.
They spring up overnight and full grown in the middle of crop circles. Didn’t you know?