Need another term for farming "tramlines"

[Culhwch]

...and a little bit of truck-farming in the bottomlands of the narrow river valleys...

Well I've learnt something today - I didn't know that you could farm trucks! I guess that comes from being a sheltered city boy my entire life, never really giving a thought to where my steak or potatoes or b-doubles came from. I tell you what, though, I don't know if I'd want to be around during breeding season...

Okay, I promise to stop derailing this thread now.

 

[Ursa major]

I didn't know that you could farm trucks

You can't grow them in hilly areas: trucks prefer flat beds....

 

[HareBrain]

Thanks everyone! Clearly there isn't an obvious term I've missed. I'm probably being too fussy about trying to get the reader to picture exactly what I mean, when as some of you say, that's unlikely to happen anyway.

I'm probably going to go with an initial "bare tracks left by the spraying vehicle" and then go with "sprayer tracks" or something.

Incidentally, the term tramlines is also used for parallel lines at the sides of tennis courts etc, which is where I learned the term at school, rather than from the vehicles.

I tell you what, though, I don't know if I'd want to be around during breeding season...

 

[Mr Orange]

I bet half the people that refer to them as tramlines couldn't actually explain why.

The term was also used in my school days to describe the lines on the rugby field 5m and 15m from the sidelines. And trams hadn't run in 50 years or so by that point.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I bet half the people that refer to them as tramlines couldn't actually explain why.

This is quite true. Reminds me of a time when I got called out on a phrase I'd grown up with -- "doing a land-office business". Now, I did actually know that it referred to the land offices (very busy ones) where claims were filed for homesteading a piece of property (that had been stolen from the Natives, of course, particularly in the Cherokee Strip Run in Oklahoma, where my parents grew up), but using the phrase was just habit. My first husband looked at me when I said that about something, and asked, "How much business do you suppose a land office does these days?"

He got me similarly on "all the way around Robin Hood's barn". Who else ever stopped to wonder whether Robin Hood was likely to own a barn? Although it's just occurred to me at this very moment that that might be the actual point -- that one is going so far out of the way that they end up in an imaginary location. Hmm.

I'm sorry, was someone talking about fields and truck breeding?

 

[Cathbad]

I lived in the center of corn farms - my uncle's was one - and I never heard this term. I don't believe it was necessary, either. When we played in the corn field, we just made sure we knew how many rows back to the one we started in.

(And if you think you can't get lost in a corn field... lemme tell you, those city folk can get lost anywhere!!)

 

[L.L.Lotte]

I'd go with tracks. Everybody understands that.

(And if you think you can't get lost in a corn field... lemme tell you, those city folk can get lost anywhere!!)

Near where I live there is the "Amazing maze 'n maize." They took a corn field and turned it into a giant maze. It's become quite the attraction, especially at Halloween when they open it during the night and decorate it all scary and have people dressed up, hiding inside the maze. Try navigating a corn field maze at night time, without any lights. Best not forget your torch...

 

[Danny McG]

It's also a common term when someone messes up ironing the crease in a pair of trousers and accidentally makes a second crease.
"Meh! I've put tramlines in these pants"

 

[Vladd67]

I'd go with tracks. Everybody understands that.



Near where I live there is the "Amazing maze 'n maize." They took a corn field and turned it into a giant maze. It's become quite the attraction, especially at Halloween when they open it during the night and decorate it all scary and have people dressed up, hiding inside the maze. Try navigating a corn field maze at night time, without any lights. Best not forget your torch...

Every year a farm near where I used to live has a Maize maze. When you go in you are given a sign on a long pole, if you get lost you hold up the sign and someone comes and rescues you.

 

[Vladd67]

It would seem maize mazes are quite popular.

Maize Maze Association

Welcome to the Maize Maze Association, find a maize maze

www.maize-maze.com

 

[Harpo]

As an aside, has anyone ever seen a crop circle which did not touch any tramlines?

 

[KiraAnn]

City kids wouldnt know these “tram lines” from a section road. As someone posted earlier, they would likely call it a path.

@Harpo, ever seen aerial photos of fields on the High Plains of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado? With the general lack of surface water, farmers use “center irrigation” here. A central pivot contains the water supply with a rotating arm, supported by huge wheels goes round and round on a schedule watering the crops. You will see these ranging up to a mile in diameter.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Incidentally I’ve never heard tramlines either and I’m reasonably close to being a culchie (Irish country person). We’d call them tractor tracks

 

[Brian G Turner]

I would have thought "tractor tracks" would make more sense. To me, "tramlines" = trams. Just saying.

 

[HareBrain]

We’d call them tractor tracks

I would have thought "tractor tracks" would make more sense.

Hmm, neither of you sees (or hears) a problem with "tractor tracks"?

Of course, if you had two sets going in opposite directions, you could have "back-to-back tractor tracks", which would be kinda cool.

 

[sknox]

Well I've learnt something today - I didn't know that you could farm trucks! ... I don't know if I'd want to be around during breeding season...

 

[sknox]

OK, now I'm done being silly as well.

But we wouldn't really say truck farming if trucks were bred. We would say we raised trucks. As in we raise cattle (makes us sound like we levitate them). We raise wheat, raise cattle, but farming means only the former--raising crops-- while we use ranching to indicate livestock.

With our diverse crew here, I wondered if the above terms vary. Hey, Scotland, Australia, Canada, what's your vocabulary here? I'm curious about non-English as well. We writers are always on the scout for words, eh?

 

[Alex The G and T]

I thought that crop circles were located on ley lines.

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The top google hit for "tramlines" only serves to confuse. Other to confirm that tramlines are a thing in Sheffield:

Tramlines Festival 2025 | Hillsborough Park

Sheffield's Biggest Party

tramlines.org.uk

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I guess the term "Truck farm" as a moderate sized vegetable farm, is rather archaic. So I had to look it up. Found this interesting tidbit:

"However, 'truck' meaning, originally any commodities for sale and, later, garden produce for market comes from an entirely different root, 'troque,' the Old French word for 'barter'"

But raising Lorrys, from "seed" sounds like it would be much more profitable.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I’m Northern Irish. How many new and weird words do you fancy?

 

[HareBrain]

But we wouldn't really say truck farming if trucks were bred. We would say we raised trucks. As in we raise cattle (makes us sound like we levitate them). We raise wheat, raise cattle, but farming means only the former--raising crops-- while we use ranching to indicate livestock.

In the UK, pig-farming, sheep-farming etc usually means to raise those animals. I'm guessing that would be true for Commonwealth countries too.