20 Fantastic Facts About Farmers to Cultivate Your Mind

Italian farmer Riccardo Bertani who is one of the most proficient polyglot ever left the studies after elementary school and taught himself more than 100 languages.

In the '80s, a Welsh farmer grew so fed up with RAF flying so low over his house that he painted "Piss Off Biggles" in giant letters on the roof of his barn. This prompted the RAF to use the barn as a navigational landmark although flying higher to respect his wishes.

Farmers in Kenya are using elephants' natural fears of bees and building "beehive fences" that keep wild elephants from trampling the crops. It keeps the farms safe and prevents farmers from having to kill elephants to defend their livelihood.

A farmer sued the US government in 1946 after military planes flew too low over his farm, startling and causing his chickens to kill themselves by flying into the walls. He claimed the government should compensate him because he owned the air above his farm.

In 2004, farmers in India used Pepsi and Coca Cola instead of pesticides because they were cheaper and got the job done just as well.

An Australian farmer named Prince Leonard of Hutt protested government-imposed wheat quotas by ceding from Australia and creating his own country. The country, the Principality of Hutt River still exists and he is the king.

A Chinese farmer named Gao XianZhang developed a way to make pears grow in the shape of little baby Buddhas by using plastic molds.

Belgian farmers are required by law to "care for the emotional well-being of their pigs" which often includes giving them toys to play with. 

Farmers differentiate watermelon by gender. "Boy" watermelons are longer and more watery, while "girl" watermelons are rounder and sweeter.

In 1978, the farmers in a small Chinese village called Xiaogang gathered in a mud hut to sign a secret contract, which split the village's collective farm into individual farms for each family. This gave them incentive to work harder as it was their personal property. They thought this decision might get them executed, but the plan was a massive success and became a future model for the rest of China.