In the Fall of 1928 or 29, the dairy barn burned to the ground, with loss of feed, hay and other damages. The cows were not destroyed so a blacksmith shop and wagon storage shed was adapted for milking stanchions and hay was stacked outside for feed. This virtually determined the end of a dairy operation, although sale of cream and butter were a continuing source of income through the 1940's. Cream separators had been used on the farm many years before 1930 although they were not common for family use. They were considered a commercial dairy item.
The farm had abundant water and ``wet lands'' but not much ``cotton and corn land.'' Its best use had been for garden crops and pasture land. But Ulrich and Mack Rob Watlington had been ``row crop'' farmers and needed more land for that. So while living on the Hammond Homeplace, they sought to rent nearby farmland for cash crops and additional corn for hogs and farm animals. At different times they rented farmland from all their neighbors.
In the 1920's we sharecropped the upland Andrew Harton farm for several years. Cotton was the main crop but the family cleared land next to the woods for corn. This was far enough from home that we carried our lunch or someone (Grandpa [Mack Rob] Watlington) brought it to us. The nice part was having to pass the good apple trees on the old Shindoll homeplace getting there. Much of the upland on the Harton farm was worn out and too poor to grow a good crop. When the Lev Harton family returned from Oklahoma in the Depression years they farmed the Harton place.
Some other places rented were the Will Greer farm on Old Pinson Road, the Dick Davey farm on Seavers Road, the Bert Priddy farm on the Old Malesus Road, and the Witherspoon place adjoining our land. In the 1940's we also raised cotton on Dr. Martin's place on Highway 45 toward Bemis. In the 1930's we worked land on the Billie Hamlett farm for several years, and cultivated a variety of crops. The Witherspoon place was the same as the McGill and Thompson places. It changed hands and names but it had some good bottom land along Meridian Creek that Papa knew how to cultivate. In later years the Watlington Brothers purchased this one hundred acre farm and continued to rent out the bottom land for cultivation and developed the Watlington Woods residential housing subdivision on the upland along Watlington Road.
Although there was no long-term lease, the Watlington family cultivated part of this farm over a period of more than twenty years. Either corn or cotton would grow well on this land, and Ulrich and the boys cleared new areas along the channeled Meridian Creek to increase the cultivated area and production. Ulrich had young labor and used it to clear ditch banks and new ground. He calculated that it was good for the boys and good farming practice also. He really believed that you could ``sweat out some meanness'' by honest labor. While he was raising cotton and corn he was also raising boys.