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Ranching and Farming After 1900 <br />• <br />The drought of the 189os marked a watershed in agricultural <br />development for all of the Colorado plains including the areas <br />around Boulder and Longmont. For farmers with irrigation systems <br />the need to build or improve reservoirs became obvious as the <br />ditches ran dry. Those farmers who did not have sources of water <br />other than precipitation found they had to make adjustments in <br />their methods or try to acquire irrigation. Boil studies, rainfall <br />studies, improved winflmill pumps to bring up groundwater, and new <br />hybrids of plants all became available to farmers after 1900 and <br />this 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 IInited states and <br />in the ten years after the Civil War some experimentation began. <br />In 1871 a committee of Colorado businessmen unsuccessfully tried to <br />raise money to purchase sugar beet processing equipment. Despite <br />early failures the crop eventually became widespread. Sugar <br />factories to process the crop opened in Grand Junction, Windsor, <br />Ft. Lupton sad Longmont (Great Western sugar Co.). The boom <br />brought thousands of acres of land under cultivation and increased <br />demands being placed on the already strained St. Vrain drainage for <br />irrigation water supplies. <br />Yet, another factor helped revolutionize rural life at the <br />time as well--the introduction of the gasoline tractor which <br />allowed one person to till more land than had been possible <br />previously. Despite these improvements farmers in the area after <br />1920 found life remained difficult as crop prices fell when <br />European farms returned to production after World Aar I and a <br />decade later in 1929, the nation began a slide into the Great <br />Depression. By 1937 and 1938, with the Great Depression and <br />• 23 <br />