J.R. Franck Glad He Won't Have to Write Weekly Report, 1966

Weekly narrative reports mailed in by county agents helped the staff at N.C. State keep up with farm problems and successes across North Carolina. This reporting system was changed in the 60s, inspiring  Jones County Agent J.R. Franck to write this poem, which was published in the January issue of Extension News in 1966.

One big job they failed to mention

When, as a young man, I was considering Extension,

Thought many others were described by the score

Was the weekly narrative recurring for evermore.

After seventeen years of lying awake at night,

Racking my brain on what to write;

And sitting, squirming and scratching my head,

I’m overjoyed to hear that the monster is dead.

My countenance is raked with many a scar

By irate farmers whose names I did mar

When tales of their deeds I would repeat

To make my weekly report complete.

To the one who gave this burden the axe,

And enabled us no more our brain thus to tax;

Nor to just sit and sit and sit and meditate,

I most gratefully this poem dedicate.

                                -- By J.R. Franck