No Abandoned Farms

Don’t let there be abandoned farms

     It is a very sorry blight

Upon the landscape God has made

     So beautiful and bright.

Don’t let there be abandoned farms,

     We need them one and all;

Don’t let the wild-growth enter in

     And cover field and wall.

Don’t let the old house tumble down

     And sink into decay;

Don’t let the running vines and grass

     Choke up the old highway.

The hills and dales, the mountainsides

     Were made for you and me;

There is no life so full of health,

     No life so nobly free.

You pale-faced men who slave by day

     In city, shop or store

Come out into the countryside

     And till the soil once more.

Come out and breathe the breath of life,

     For everyone there’s room.

Don’t let there be abandoned farms,

     Make every acre bloom.

    

c. June 26, 1907