FARMING THEN 

Winn  Parish, and particularly the area around Dodson, New Hope, and Hudson, was a very different place a century ago than it is today.  It was a bustling and fairly populated area.  Due to the virgin timber boom, many moved into the area to seek a better life.  Farming was still the mainstay, though, for many people there. Unlike the more fertile land along rivers and streams in the southern and western part of the parish, many farmers in this area had hilly, sandy and clay land that was less productive.  

The cash crop then was cotton, but the emergence of the boll weevil in the first decade of the century cut cotton crop productivity later by nearly half.  Poisons then could have helped somewhat with the boll weevil problems, but many farmers couldn't afford these poisons.  Corn was also a major crop for many, since it could be fed to the farm animals, and cornbread was common fare at the dinner table.  Corn was shelled and taken to a local gristmill for grinding.  Peanuts were also quite commonly grown at area farms.  Cows and mules ate the corn shulks, hay, and peanut hulls.  Peas, beans, soybeans, tomatoes, potatoes, greens, sweet potatoes, peaches, and other fruits were also common crops for personal use.  Some farmers, like Buddy Payne, later bought canning equipment and then packaged and sold some canned items, such as tomatoes and peaches.

Sugar cane was another popular crop there.  When late October and November arrived, the cane was cut and carried to someone nearby who had a syrup mill.  The cane was stripped and chopped and then cooked and packaged in gallon cans.  Buddy Payne often would get 50-100 gallons of ribbon cane syrup at that time of the year.  Some of it the family would consume, and some of it was sold at his store.

Farmers then would set aside some of their surplus from good crop years as protection from the occasional year when droughts, bad weather, and poor crops occurred.  Buddy Payne would save seeds as well and sell or give these seeds to local farmers.  The Buddy Payne family didn't have many luxuries, but they had the basics (and more than many other families who had less acreage and didn't operate a community store).