CROPS
Crops, such as these green peppers, are commodities that are planted and gathered within a single season.
Commodities produced from the earth which are planted, raised, and gathered within the course of a single season.
Crops might be produced either naturally or under cultivation. This distinction becomes important when determining whether a crop is to be sold as PERSONAL PROPERTY or as real estate, and also in terms of how crops are to be devised.
Fructus naturales are crops that are produced by the powers of nature alone, without any harvesting methods. They include fruit trees, berries growing on bushes, and hay growing spontaneously from perennial roots. They are considered real property when they are not severed from the land, but personal property when severed.
Fructus industriales, or emblements, are annual crops that are raised by yearly labor and owe their existence to human intervention and cultivation. Such crops include wheat, corn, and vegetables. Authorities differ as to whether they constitute real or personal property.
The ownership of crops is generally held to
be in the owner of the land, whether the crops
are natural or cultivated. The owner may volun-
tarily choose to sever and sell the crops, without
being obligated to sell the land upon which they
are grown. The situation often arises in which
the land belongs to one person and the crops
belong to another, such as in the case of one per-
son leasing land from another person. In such a
case, whoever is in possession of the land subject
to the consent of the owner may take and carry
away the products of land resulting from his or
her own care and labor.
Ordinarily, crops that are attached to land at
the time of a sale pass automatically to the
buyer, except where the owner has provided to
the contrary. Someone disposing of land may,
therefore, stipulate the retention of the title to
the crops.
It has been widely held that a trespasser
who enters another person’s land and culti-
vates crops does not acquire title to them, since
the owner is lawfully entitled to full possession
and enjoyment of his or her property. Some
authorities have held that as long as crops
planted by an intruder remain unsevered, they
are the property of the owner of the land upon
which they are planted, whereas severed crops
belong to the trespasser if he or she possesses
the land when the crops are ready to be har-
vested.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Agricultural Law.
