I'll bet it's a REALLY good conversation piece when digging out a tree branch out of the throat of a combine or baler  LOL!!!

Jeff, Ever stop to think about some people may have sentiments to that parcel... Like that was their home place or that was their great great grandfather that planted those trees there or built his farm there and had worked the land from that building site and rested his horses under the trees at noon or ...

 I have watched small farms disappear and trees took over the landscape and the fences fall down and the fields become overgrown with brush and then pines or boxcelders or some other tree that was conducive to the land and then 40 or 50 years later a bulldozer comes in and bulldozes down the old rotten down buildings that have been abandon for that long of time and clean out the fields and the former boundaries diaappear and becomes part of bigger fields... and all the hard work the forefathers did to grub and clear the land that took years to clear is recleared in days. And the land is worked and planted in hours... Takes only a minute or two to turn that steering wheel to go around that group of trees... and provides some refuge to wildlife... But sadly the next generation that will farm the land will probably just doze them trees out and fill the holes in and not look back because they will be keeping an eye on the profit line... and the land will only be the generator of the profit and nothing more.   The profit will be what dictates the tears and heart breaks and joy, not so much the love for the land from the laborious toil and sweat.   The old farmer knew every foot of his land and held that in his mind, while the new age farmer has any retained info stored in his computer... sitting 6 or 8 feet off the ground.  

 My thoughts are it is because that spot where the trees are means something to some one... or means to stay out of that spot cuzz there is a hole there or something.

 I know of an old hay shed that still stands after more than 80 years, and it is surrounded by trees now. The family haven't use it for the last 50 years but it was what their grandpa had built on the back edge of the north 40. 

Well, Guess I didn't help much.   

I rent some ground that has way more than you need for shade,but the old timer that owned it,said you never know where you might want to rest in the shade. Now trees are about sacred in this county.

I have heard that when clearing some of the land they farmer/ logger would use one big tree in the center of the lot to attach a pulling system to be used to pull the rest of the stumps around the new field. This may not be the case of your trees? I know I still feel bad that I took down some trees in our yard to build a building.

 I do remember plowing around a couple trees on my dads property. Also remember the cool breeze under them during hot days!

Regards,

 Chris

I never farmed around nuttin!--MOOSE took care of trees!---AND stumps! lol!