> Folk Music > Songs > The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn

The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn / The Lazy Farmer

[ Roud 438 ; Laws H13 ; Ballad Index LH13 ; DT HOECORN ; Mudcat 88547 ; trad.]

Preston Young and Posey Rorer recorded A Lazy Farmer Boy in New York on 26 June 1931. It was released as a Buster Carter and Preston Young song on Columbia 15702D, and was included in 1952 on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music Volume One: Ballads on Folkways Records. The album’s booklet noted:

Buster Carter and Preston Young (1907-[c.1978]) were from the Piedmont area of North Carolina and Virginia, a region known for its string bands. One of their neighbours was renowned musician and band leader Charlie Poole and both groups included fiddler Posey Rorer, who joined Carter and Young after Poole’s death. Carter and Rorer were also members of the group the Carolina Buddies. Carter lived in Mayodan, North Carolina, and Young in Martinsville, Virginia. They recorded one of the earliest versions of what is now a bluegrass standard Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms. Preston Young spent his later years working in the sheet metal business. Although this recording is listed under Carter and Young’s names, Carter did not play on A Lazy Farmer Boy—the recording features just Young and Rorer.

Robin Holcomb sang A Lazy Farmer Boy at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Los Angeles in April 2001, which was released in 2006 on the CD Harry Smith Project.

Peggy Seeger sang Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn on her 1954 Signet and 1955 Folkways album Folk Songs of Courting and Complaint. She noted:

This is one of the lesser-known melodies to a well-known text which also appears under the title The Lazy Young Man in many collections. About the more conventional versions, Vance Randolph, in Ozark Folksongs, says: “These words are sometimes sung to an old melody called The Blackbird and the Crow. Cox says that it has never been reported from England and is ‘very probably an American product’.”

Guy Carawan sang The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe His Corn in 1958 on his Topic album Mountain Songs and Banjo Tunes.

Edna and Jean Ritchie sang A Young Man That Wouldn’t Hoe Corn in 1958 on the Folkways album The Ritchie Family of Kentucky, and Jean Ritchie sang Young Man Who Wouldn’t Raise Corn in 1971 on her Sire/Transatlantic album Clear Waters Remembered. She noted on the first album:

Our family had its worries. There were eleven girls born in our house, and only three boys, and that seemed to be pretty much the pattern all over the country. There was a little song we used to sing over the dishwashing, and by the time the older girls got up into their teens, this song came to have real meaning.

Vernon Smelser from Paoli, Indiana sang The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn in a 1963 recording made by Pat Dunford and Lee Hafferty that was included in 2000 on the Folk-Legacy anthology Ballads and Songs of Tradition. The album’s booklet noted:

This is one of the classic American folk songs, known all over the country and recorded by many performers, including Burl Ives. Vern learned the version sung here from his mother, who got it while living in Kansas. Take a look at the various versions listed by Laws. There are many.

Chris Wood and Andy Cutting sang The Lazy Farmer at the Sidmouth International Festival of Folk Arts in August 1994. This recording was included in the following year on their album Live at Sidmouth.

Cross o’th Hands sang The Lazy Farmer, credited to trad. / Chris Wood, in 1996 on their album Handmade.

Maclaine Colston and Saul Rose sang The Lazy Farmer on their 2009 album Sand & Soil. This track was also included on the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2010 compilation. They noted on their album:

We think this song is traditional. Saul heard Chris Wood sing it many moons ago at his local folk club, The Pumphouse in Watford, and we adopted it. After playing it for a while we found a couple of extra verses (4 & 5) which really add to the story of this unapologetic rascal. Interestingly it also appears that Alison Krauss has penned a very similar song, no doubt someone will enlighten us further. Anyway, we love it because it has the words ‘bugger’, ‘arse’ and ‘sod’ in it.

Phillip Henry sang The Boy That Wouldn’t Hoe Corn in 2010 on his album Live in the Living Room and in 2011 on his and Hannah Martin’s album Singing the Bones. They noted:

This version is based on the great arrangement of the song by Union Station. Attempts to better this version in the studio proved futile so here it is recorded live at an intimate house gig in Exeter in 2010.

They also sang it with Gigspanner Big Band at Nettlebed Folk Club in January 2017, which was released in the same year on their album Live.

Vic Shepherd and John Bowden sangThe Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn in 2022 on their Hallamshire Tradition album Revel in the Stories. They noted:

We learned this song from the singing of Jean Ritchie, who called it The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Raise Corn. It’s a version of the song often called The Lazy Farmer or Lazy Farmer Boy, and is almost identical to A Lazy Farmer Boy, recorded in 1931 by Buster Carter and Preston Young with Posey Rorer (of Charlie Poole’s North Carolina Ramblers) on fiddle. One of the few songs we sing with a relatively cheerful ending!

Lyrics

Peggy Seeger sings Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn

I’ll sing you a song, not very long
About a lazy farmer who wouldn’t hoe his corn,
The reason why I cannot tell,
That young man was always well. (×2)

He planted his corn about June the last
In July it was about knee high;
In September there came a big frost,
And all that young man’s corn was lost. (×2)

He went to the field, he got there at last
The weeds and grass was up to his eye;
The grass and weeds grown so high
Caused that poor young man to sigh. (×2)

Now his courtship had just begun –
“Say young feller have you hoe’d your corn?”
“I tried I tried I tried in vain,
I don’t believe that I will raise one grain.” (×2)

“Why do you come to me to wed
If you can’t raise your own cornbread?
Single I am and will remain
A lazy man I’ll not maintain.” (×2)

He hung his head and walked away,
Saying, “Kind Miss you’ll rue the day,
You’ll rue the day that you was born,
For giving me the devil because I wouldn’t hoe corn.” (×2)

Now his courtship was to an end
And on his way he did begin –
Saying, “Kind Miss I will have another girl
If I have to ramble this whole wide world.” (×2)

Edna and Jean Ritchie sing A Young Man That Wouldn’t Hoe Corn

Come all young ladies and listen to my song,
I’ll tell you of a young man that wouldn’t raise corn;
The reason why I cannot tell,
This young man was always well.

In the month of June he planted his corn,
In July he laid it by;
In October there came a frost,
The seed of his corn this young man lost.

He goeth down and he peepeth in,
The weeds and the grass was up to his chin;
The weeds and the grass they grew so high,
Caused this young man for to cry.

He goeth down to his near neighbour’s land,
Goin’ a-courtin’ as I understand,
Goin’ a-courtin’ as sure’s you’re born –
Kind sir, have you wed your corn?

Yes my dear, in reply,
Yes my dear, I’ve laid it by.
But it ain’t worth while to strive in vain,
Don’t believe to my soul it’s going to raise one grain.

A healthy young man that won’t raise corn
Is the laziest man that ever was born.
Single I am and single I’ll remain,
A lazy man I won’t maintain.

Vernon Smelser sings The Young Man Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn

Come listen, you young folks, to my song
About a man who wouldn’t hoe his corn.
The reason why I cannot tell.
For this young man was always well.

He had planted his corn in the month of June,
And in July it wasn’t knee-high.
In the fall there came a frost
And all this young man’s corn was lost.

So he went around to his sweetheart’s door,
Where he had often gone before,
But ere their courting they began,
She asked him if he’d hoed his corn.

He hung his head and begin to sigh,
Saying, “Lady, lady, I’ll tell you why.
I’ve tried and tried, but all in vain,
I don’t believe I’ll raise a grain.”

“Then why do you ask a girl to wed.
If a man can’t earn his own cornbread?
Single I am, and I’ll remain,
For a lazy man I won’t maintain.”

At this, the young man turned away.
Saying, “Lady, lady, you’ll rule the day,
You’ll rule it, madam, just as sure as you were born,
For giving me the shivvers ‘cause I didn’t hoe my corn.”