8 The New York State College of Forestry 
is not static but dynamic, 1. e., it is a “‘ moving picture ”’— a 
matter of social evolution so to speak. The bog heath will 
presently (speaking in terms of decades or centuries maybe). 
become a dwarf forest of black spruce and tamarack. The 
bed of water weeds and rushes will become perhaps a beaver 
meadow, a balsam swamp and possibly utimately a climax 
forest. The bare granite will ultimately be covered by a 
moisture holding blanket laid down by the vegetation itself and 
capable of supporting a forest growth. 
The expression ‘ development of vegetation” therefore is 
meant to suggest the progressive steps or stages by which vege- 
tation comes to occupy the land. Vegetation is essentially a 
social organization and the sequence of plant associations from 
the pioneer state — for example a shallow lake bottom — on 
through the successive stages to the climax forest — its mature 
stage — has been compared to the life history of an individual 
organism. (3, page 3.) 
While theoretically the ultimate type of vegetation in this 
climate should be a climax forest of certain hard woods and 
conifers, actually the continuing, though decreasing, diversity 
of soil conditions will perpetuate the diversity of vegetation 
types. But this theoretical consideration should not be allowed 
to obscure certain very practical considerations; namely, that 
all the energy and momentum of plant life in this region tends 
toward the establishment of a forest; that the process of forest 
establishment is a more or less fixed course of development 
starting in widely differing situations and following different 
sequences but all tending to converge toward a uniform type; 
finally, and more especially important, that during the course 
of its development vegetation itself brings about changes in the 
soil which cause or contribute to the succession of one type of 
vegetation by another and which lead to the uniformity of 
soil conditions —the thick blanket of forest humus — which 
is able to support the stable, more or less uniform climax forest. 
One must not conclude from this that the Iumbered and 
burned areas of the Adirondacks are speedily returning again 
to the desirable status of climax forest. In some cases where 
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