In an agricultural community in the 90s, there was a type of school organized by local farmers. These “farmer’s schools” taught students the necessary courses for college while also providing farming technology courses and work study credit hours.
A Large Farm
One of the farms near the school was a thousand-acre spread that grew mostly cotton, but sometimes rotated to soybeans or silage. The farmer had a long partnership with the school, and the students provided near-free labor for him.
The Shocking Request
One day, the farmer instructed some students to crew the sprayers and start spraying herbicide on the fields, while others were to take tractors and discs and plow everything under.
They Were Shocked
The farmer wanted every square inch of the fields returned to just dirt. The students were shocked but set to work, and it took them the better part of a weekend to complete the task.
He Paid BIG!
The farmer thanked each of them personally and paid them about $500 each, which was quite a sum for a 90s high school senior.
The Fallout
The students returned to the school and informed the headmaster that the “contract” was completed. The headmaster then informed them that the farmer would no longer be working with the school, and they would be sent to one of the other larger farms for the rest of the year and their work study.
Rumors
It was two or three months later before rumors started going around about why they had been instructed to destroy the crop.
The Landowner’s Trick
The landowner had decided not to renew the lease that the farmer had on the land. This lease renewal just so happened to fall a few weeks before harvest season would start.
The Figures
Given that the average cotton farm earns about $1,500 per acre, a 1,000-acre farm would easily net the owner $1.5 million, about $500k of that being pure profit.
The Trick
The landowner figured out a neat little “trick.” Let the farmer get a good crop planted, and then refuse to renew the lease. The farmer would leave the plants in the field, and the landowner would just need to pay some contractors to come harvest it, and they’d earn a profit.
The Farmer’s Revenge
Since the farmer’s lease wasn’t yet up, he decided to prevent that from happening. His act of revenge against the owner was to prevent them from cashing in on their hard work.
Destruction
Sure, it destroyed his farm, and he had to sell off most everything he owned to buy some property for himself, but he proved a point. The farmer’s revenge was to prevent the landowner from profiting off his hard work.
The Aftermath
The owner tried to sue the farmer, but he didn’t have a leg to stand on. The court ruled that since the farmer was still under the lease when he had the land tilled under, then it was his property to do with as he wished, and thus the landowner couldn’t tell him what to do with his property.
It Worked
The farmer’s revenge had worked, but it came at a cost. He lost his farm and had to start over, but he proved that he wouldn’t be taken advantage of. The students who had worked on the farm learned a valuable lesson about not crossing someone with nothing to lose.
The Internet Were Shocked!
Here’s what one commenter said, “Great story! The farmer is a much smarter business person than the landowner!”
Another said this, “This was enjoyable to read and I’m glad the farmer got the last laugh in sad events.”
Some People Were Unsure
This person was very sceptical, “I’m trying to imagine the circumstances where a farmer signs a lease that expires BEFORE harvest time that doesn’t include his rights to the harvest that he planted? I mean, good story but that is impossibly stupid.”
But the person explained, “The farmer had had a long relationship with the school, so he probably had a long-term lease, with multiple renewals. If the landowner had planned this for a while, he could have buried a change of ending date, the farmer signed without noticing (something you should never do, but, long relationship, prior trust…), farmer informed of being screwed at the last minute. Not impossibly stupid, more likely just trusting.”
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