Once the land was cleared enough to plant a crop, it was very fertile, but there was little market for produce. Cotton and corn were the leading crops. Cotton staple or fiber was the money crop because it was about the only product of this section which would pay the cost of transportation to market and yield the producer a profit. Corn was grown for making meal used by the family and for livestock feed.

Old Beckville had no cotton gin. The farmers who grew a large cotton crop owned a gin and ginned their own cotton. Some men who had smaller farms owned a gin to process their own cotton and then made a profit from ginning cotton for their neighbors. Only two bales a day could be ginned on these first gins. There was no market closer than Shreveport. The bales of cotton had to be hauled to that river town in wagons over very poor roads having difficult river and stream crossings.

As the pioneer period passed gins were somewhat improved. An iron screw replaced the wooden one in the press, and the mule, which turned it, moved in a much smaller circle. The lint room was placed closer to the gin. From each wagonload of cotton one twelfth, later one fifteenth, of the cotton was taken as the ginner’s pay.

The farmers traveled in groups when they hauled their cotton to Shreveport in the fall. They not only did this for company, but also in order to double their teams on extra hard pulls. The trip from Old Beckville took six days.

Cotton was for many years the leading crop and almost the only money crop. After the railroad came through the area, it was transported to larger markets by railway. Beckville merchants held prices equal to those in larger and older market towns. But some of the farmers doubted that they were being paid as much for their cotton as they could get in Shreveport. To sell near home was more convenient, but in the early nineties they decided to load several wagons with their fall crops and make the long trip to Shreveport. They were forced to sell at a lower price than they would have received at Beckville and came home wiser and poorer.

Improved gins and a nearby market increased cotton production. The effects of the same crops being planted year after year on the same land began to show on the farms. Cotton yields were declining and some of the land was said to be "worn out". New land couldn’t be cleared because the country was becoming thickly settled and the old fields couldn’t be rested, as had been the custom. The alert farmer recognized the cause of the declining yields. The soil was having food taken from it year after year and very little, if anything, was being done to replace it. Cattle were turned into cotton fields to eat the leaves after the crop was harvested. Many farmers pulled the stalks and burned them to clear the land for spring plowing. Due to this, little plant food was returned to the soil and its fertility declined. Progressive farmers began crop rotation to help solve this problem. Cotton would be followed the next year by corn, peas, or peanuts.

The bollweevil is thought to be the greatest enemy of the cotton crop. According to Avis Kinard, the insect came from Mexico in 1892 reached the Beckville area in the early 1900’s. For the next few years they destroyed much of the cotton crop. Several years passed before successful methods of combating the bollweevil were found. Beckville suffered, as did all of the cotton producing South.

People were finally able to buy better equipment as more money was earned from the sale of products. Many labor saving devices were found on the farms. The old-time gins operated by horse power gave way to steam powered gins. Mr. J.W. Yarborough put in a diesel operated gin. This new gin required only seven minutes to produce a bale of cotton.

The production of cotton in 1912 was at a high level. At that time the ginners in the Beckville area were Crawford and Bros., A.C. McRae, J.W. Brown, Gentry and Pittman, H.W. Pickren, and J.W. Yarbrough.

During World War II the labor force was greatly reduced which made it difficult for farmers to continue making a profit on cotton. But cotton production began to improve after the war. Mr. Irby Driskell said, "The best cotton producing year we had was 1925. I expect we shipped 10,000 bales that season."

The great depression happened a few years later and farmers could no linger make a living on small farms. They began looking for other sources of income before World War II.

Some cotton farmers started growing tomatoes and that produce proved to be profitable for a few years. Others grew sweet potatoes or watermelons for their cash crop.

Cotton disappeared from the scene in the thirties and early forties as farmers in this vicinity began to turn their cotton fields into pastures for cattle.