Farmer's Lament

Cisco Houston

I've pruned all the apples

And hauled brush away

Manured the currants

And seeded the hay

Spring work is over

And summer has come

I sure hope this season

Is better than some



Chorus:

It's hard, hard on my hard-working farm



The apples are setting

So mix up a spray

Before the curculio

Carts them away

The scab and the cotton-moth

Work busily

They each choose an apple

And leave one for me



Chorus



Boom goes the thunder

And splash comes the rain

"Fine for the famer"

The city folks claim

The orchard is flooded

The corn's beaten down

And the roof of the barn

Is blown halfway to town



Chorus



The apples are scabby

The currents have rot

There isn't a pestilence

We haven't got

The grapes are all mildewed

The cherries are too

But I'm too darn busy

To start feeling blue



Chorus



Here comes the buyer

With tears in his eyes

Telling so sadly

His wonderful lies

He lives in the poorhouse

He goes almost bare

The way we treat him

It really ain't fair



Chorus:



He don't make no money

He can't pay his rent

His profit's a measly

400 per cent

He's really an angel

He's misunderstood

So give him your shirt, boys,

Like good farmers should



Chorus



Now harvest is over

I ain't got a cent

I'm calloused and sunburned

My back's badly bent

I'm just about ruptured

My feet are so sore

Sometime I wonder

Just who I work for



Chorus