# What are these patterns in the fields (Oklahoma/Texas) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-patterns-in-the-fields-oklahoma-texas/741187 "2015-12-23T16:06:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-patterns-in-the-fields-oklahoma-texas/741187/1 "2015-12-23T16:06:33Z")
On Google Maps, lots of the fields have these concentric patterns, which appear to be tracing out contours. [Link](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Oklahoma,+USA/@36.5041948,-100.1901432,3501m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x87ac3911b1ac4f9d:0x5d1ccf33400aea48!6m1!1e1?hl=en). They almost look like the patterns you get in terraced fields in steep countryside, but the land here is pretty flat. Looking on [street view](https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@36.5029953,-100.1632014,3a,56.8y,279.17h,82.32t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNXuATyZfOEnVERZAYWacEA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e4?hl=en), the patterns are raised ridges, not ditches, so they don’t seem to be any kind of drainage thing. Clearly people have gone to a lot of effort to make them, though, as they are all over the place in this area. What are they? ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-patterns-in-the-fields-oklahoma-texas/741187/2 "2015-12-23T17:47:53Z")
You have circled all around it. It is farming on the contour. It is anti-drainage - when you get not enough rain you want to save all you can; and prevent good topsoil from running off when the rain is excessive. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-patterns-in-the-fields-oklahoma-texas/741187/3 "2015-12-23T18:17:17Z")
I tried to look it up for a cite, but I would say that they are as SVD says above. Maybe government sponsored after the 1920s dustbowl disaster, where all the topsoil got blown away after farmers ploughed off the hardy, deep rooted grasses. The british did something similar trying to cultivate groundnuts in the British trusteeship of Tanganyika, now mainland Tanzania. They had to cope with lions, elephants and angry bees as well. It was a total disaster and the land was ruined. > **[Tanganyika groundnut scheme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika_groundnut_scheme)** > > The Tanganyika groundnut scheme, or East Africa groundnut scheme, was a failed attempt by the British government to cultivate tracts of its African trust territory Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) with peanuts. Launched in the aftermath of World War II by the Labour Party administration of prime minister Clement Attlee, the goal was to produce urgently needed oilseeds on a projected 3 million acres (5,000 sq miles, or over 12,000 km2; an area almost as big as Yorkshire) of land, in order to ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-patterns-in-the-fields-oklahoma-texas/741187/4 "2015-12-23T19:53:35Z")
Farmers here aren’t looking for water drainage, they’re looking for water containment. The ridges are meant to hold water on the field, they’re the opposite of ditches used to drain water away. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-patterns-in-the-fields-oklahoma-texas/741187/5 "2015-12-23T22:41:29Z")
Ah, just like the spirals in that south african dust bowl lake bed… (right near the track used by someone famous in a land speed record attempt )… ( A major segway but … Of course the land speed record attempts are now moot, as the rocket vehicles are being programmed to touch down to land to the minimum amount neccessary, its more like a touch and go rocket… ) ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-these-patterns-in-the-fields-oklahoma-texas/741187/6 "2015-12-23T22:45:52Z")
Experienced son-in-law from Oz here. Wife was a farmer’s daughter from a very dry part of the country. The problem is, water that hits the ground (and doesn’t soak in) will naturally drain away via the most optimal path. Over time, this optimal path tends to become more defined - hence streams, rivers etc. Eventually you wind up with gullies, natural drains and ditches, naturally eroded channels all over the place, which is very efficient at removing water from the land. Now, while this is a natural process, it is not ideal for farming large fields in a predominately dry environment. So drainage banks are designed to make the water run across the field in multiple small channels - giving the water the maximum time to soak into the ground, without having it all soak into the one small stream bed. If there is excess water from a single large rainfall event - too much to soak into the ground - the banks can eventually direct the water to a holding dam for later use (eg, stock watering). I learnt all about this over many dinner-table talks, and even drove the tractor with the blade attached to build a few banks. Naturally, I was poor at this and had to receive much instruction on what I had done wrong.