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42 <br /> date to the late nineteenth century, but the project was <br /> undertaken in the 1930s and 1940s. <br /> Much to the chagrin of the farmers, their boom ended by 1900. <br /> Not only did the rains fail to come, but irrigation ditches, <br /> including those in the Dowe Flats area, ran dry and a national <br /> depression that proved to be particularly devastating to Colo- <br /> rado's silver mines all but wiped out the farm markets. Those <br /> who could afford to abandoned their farms, did so, while others <br /> hung on by scratching out a living from the parched soil (Mehls <br /> 1984a: 123-134) . The Panic of 1893 and ensuing depression marked <br /> the end of Colorado's first boom period and local residents spent <br /> the closing years of the nineteenth century trying to adjust to <br /> the changed conditions and looking for the next boom. <br /> 2.4 .4 Ranching and Farming After 1900 <br /> The drought of the 1890s marked a turning point in agricultural <br /> development for all of the Colorado plains including the areas <br /> around Boulder and Longmont. For farmers with irrigation <br /> systems, the need to build or improve reservoirs became obvious <br /> as the ditches ran dry. Those farmers who did not have sources <br /> of water other than precipitation found they had to make <br /> adjustments in their methods. Soil studies, rainfall studies, <br /> improved windmill pumps to bring up groundwater, and new hybrids <br /> of plants all became available to farmers after 1900 and this <br /> allowed for more productive farming. These developments, <br /> followed by abnormally high crop prices during World War I <br /> (1914-1919) , led to a boom in dryland farming. During this boom <br /> period another factor influenced Boulder County agriculture, the <br /> introduction of sugar beets. <br /> Sugar beets had been cultivated in central Europe since the <br /> Napoleonic Wars. The crop spread slowly to the United States and <br /> in the ten years after the Civil War some experimentation began. <br /> In 1871 a committee of Colorado businessmen unsuccessfully tried <br /> to raise money to purchase sugar beet processing equipment. <br /> Despite early failures the crop eventually became widespread. <br />