Sow 'Em on the Mountain is a traditional spiritual recorded by the Carters in 1930. It was leter recorded by the Coon Creek Girls and Woody Guthrie as "Sowing on the Mountain."

"Sow 'em is a mishearing of "Sowing" so clearly this is a song they learned from another source.

According to one author "Sowing On the Mountain" is a traditional gospel song in which the biblical warning of "fire next time" takes on additional meaning in the nuclear age.

In my opinion the song is based on the verse of the 1874 hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves:"

Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve.

There is also a relationship in form and content to "This Train is Bound for Glory.

SOW 'EM ON THE MOUNTAIN-Carter Family 1930

                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   You gonna reap just what you sow

               If you've been a gambler, better quit your gamblin'
               If you've been a gambler, better quit your gamblin'
               If you've been a gambler, better quit your gamblin'
               'Cause you gonna reap just what you sow

                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   You gonna reap just what you sow

               If you been a tattler, you better quit your tattling
               If you been a tattler, you better quit your tattling
               If you been a tattler, you better quit your tattling
               'Cause you gonna reap just what you sow

                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   You gonna reap just what you sow

               If you been a liar, you better you quit your lying
               If you been a liar, you better you quit your lying
               If you been a liar, you better you quit your lying
               'Cause you gonna reap just what you sow

                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   Sow 'em on the mountain, reap 'em in the valley
                   You gonna reap just what you sow