We plough the fields with tractors

Last week M gave me the words of a hymn she had sung at a Harvest Festival in Yorkshire. She said the congregation had enjoyed it, although the last line was missing so there was some confusion when people tried to sing the first line of the chorus to the melody of the last line of the verse. She pointed out I would need to complete the final stanza: "Why do folks in foreign lands / Still starve and children die? / Because we have not learned..." (suggestions on a postcard...)

I looked up the hymn on the internet and found two further versions of it. None of the three versions were identical and in some places they were radically different. None of them had an author attributed. So I took the best lines from each, and in the few places (especially the last verse) where I didn't like any version I made the words up myself. We sang it tonight. No-one passed comment on it afterwards, which I take to be a sign of disinterest rather than active dislike.

Anyway, these words may never be sung again in this precise form, so I preserve them here for posterity. If anyone knows who the original author is, please say so.

We plough the fields with tractors,
With drills we sow the land;
But growth is still dependent
On God’s almighty hand.
Organic fertilizers
Will help the growing grain,
But for its full fruition
It needs God’s sun and rain.

All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above;
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord
For all his love.

To gather in the harvest
Machines now lead the way.
We reap the the fields with combines,
We bale the new mown hay;
But it is God who gives us
Inventive skills and drive;
Which lighten daily labour
And give us fuller lives!

Then why are people starving
When we have life so good?
And some in crowded cities
Search dustbins for their food;
And even some go hungry
Who farm in distant lands;
Lord, help us learn more swiftly
To share with open hands.