Cotton and corn were the plantation’s primary crops. Fields were plowed in January, crops were planted in February and March, and cultivation followed soon after the plants emerged, with workers thinning them into stands and removing grass and weeds. Corn harvest began in June or July and cotton harvest in August. After picking, cotton was processed in a mule-powered gin that separated fiber from seed, then packed into bales weighing about 500 pounds each and hauled by wagon to the buyer offering the highest price per pound. By 1855, crops and other goods were ferried down the Brazos River and could be shipped from the opposite bank by the B.B. B. & C. railroad. Textile mills in the North and in Great Britain turned the ginned cotton into cloth. Cotton was grown for profit, while corn was grown for consumption and milled to feed both people and animals. The plantation also kept work animals such as oxen, horses, and mules, and food animals such as hogs and poultry, some of which were raised for sale. Timber cut from the property was also sold for $2 per wagon load.