Slightly off topic perhaps, but in east Texas, near to the Avery community I kept finding odd sink lines in my pastures. I was told by ex-MIL that the sink lines were caused by old trenches that carried smoke and heat away from a central pit fire, smoke lines roofed temporarily by either old roofing type tiles or boards. Some pits bigger than others, with the "smoke lines" radiating like the spokes of a wheel. The pits were also covered, opened only to keep the fires going ( embers).
Then the tomato plants were started next to the warmed smoke flues, which warmed the earth and allowed for earlier tomato plants to be grown to size to be put out in the fields. Differing stuff was used to lay over the seed beds to also help keep the seed /soil warmed.
I guess at one time period around the early 1930's, east Texas was known for tomato production.
I thought she might have been pulling my legs, but many of the older folk told me the same story about the tomato trenches. Supposedly, Avery ( near Clarksville and west of Texarkana) was once known as "the tomato capital of Texas".
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