82 BEACH GRASS 



records we find accounts of mild winters and 

 severe winters, but in the long run, the cold and 

 warm, the dry and wet balance each other, and 

 the general average is the same. Meteorolo- 

 gists believe that there has been no mate- 

 rial change in the climate within historical 

 times. 



Yet it is a common idea that the climate of 

 New England is growing milder, and when we 

 have much cold and snow, the older people speak 

 of it as an ''old-fashioned winter." The human 

 mind is prone to remember vividly and even to 

 magnify unusual events and seasons, while or- 

 dinary seasons of snowfall are forgotten. Then, 

 too, a snowdrift three feet high, struggled 

 through by a child, assumes gigantic proportions 

 in the memory when the child has reached mature 

 age and size. 



In our cities a generation ago, the snowfall 

 was not managed as efficiently as it is now, when 

 powerful snow ploughs and gangs of men clear 

 the streets within a few hours of the storm. In 

 former days the snow was allowed to accumulate 

 and remained longer in the way of traffic. An- 



