v BELIEF AND EVIDENCE 97 



cycle and how it led to a belief in the change of climate, 

 is contained in the following statement : 



The time of the " boom " in western Kansas and Nebraska, and 

 in eastern Colorado, in the decade 1880-90, followed one of 

 Bruckner's wet periods, and the collapse of the " boom " came 

 when the drier period advanced. Farmers who went out on 

 to the high plains in the years of slightly greater rainfall preceding 

 the " boom," and who lost all their capital, and more too, in the 

 vain attempt to raise their grain in the years which followed, 

 could with difficulty be convinced that the climate of the plains 

 had not permanently changed for the worse. The impression 

 left upon their minds, and upon the mind of anyone who saw 

 the country later, was one of decreasing rainfall, unsuccessful 

 agriculture and financial ruin. Within more recent years, in 

 this same region of Kansas, with a somewhat increased rainfall 

 during a wetter cycle, but without any permanent change 

 to a wetter climate, the intelligent choice of cereals better 

 adapted to the soil and climate, and the rational use of the 

 available water supply, have wrought a wonderful change in the 

 aspect and economic value of the State. Prof. R. de C. Ward. 



As with the farmers of Kansas, so many other people 

 have arrived at their conclusions as to a progressive and 

 permanent change of climate, from general impressions 

 produced by a succession of several bad or good years. 

 In the perspective of the past the individual years are 

 not seen separately when viewed from another stage of 

 a lifetime, and characteristics of periods of weather in 

 youthful days are apt to be used as comparison with 

 individual years of middle life or old age. However 

 firm may be the belief that this generation experiences 

 different weather from that of its fathers or grand- 

 fathers, the fact remains that no such change in historic 

 times has been established. 



Beliefs in the influence of the moon upon the weather 

 are enshrined in the folk-lore of all countries. We 

 cannot attempt here to classify and analyse the hundreds 



G.D. G 



