Forest Development in the Adirondacks 9 
the balanced association of species has not been too greatly 
broken up and where the soil blanket has been preserved, the 
return, speaking in terms of tree growth, will be prompt. Large 
areas are coming to what. seems a stable condition with only hard 
wood species in the association. It may be that the soft wood 
species are starting under the present close crown and will 
endure until some veteran hardwoeds fall and thus opening the 
canopy give them a chance to assert their place as associates 
in the forest stand. This, of course, is a question of too great 
economic concern to remain in the field of mere speculation. 
As foresters have shown, the forest policy for the Adirondacks 
rests very largely on the question as to whether the soft woods 
will reappear under present methods of cutting. 
Then there remain- those vast areas where lumbering and 
especially severe fires have destroyed both forest stand and the 
humus blanket. For such lands the return to climax forest 
through the slow stages of the normal course of vegetation 
development involves a time schedule beyond any except mere 
academic interest of present generations. With such lands the 
way lies through shortening the period of development by 
human agencies. 
The Development of Vegetation on Peat Beds 
The present bulletin gives an account of certain investiga- 
tions having for their object to determine some of the condi- 
tions under which peat beds are formed and especially to fol- 
low the course of vegetation as it develops upon and contributes 
to the formation of peat. Such a study cannot be said to have 
any very great economic bearing as compared with investiga- 
tions of conditions under which the more valuable commercial 
forests develop, for even when peat beds or bogs become 
covered with forest growth this forest consists chiefly of dwarfed 
black spruce and tamarack of relatively ttle commercial value. 
This investigation seems to show, however, that in the long 
run the vegetation on peat soils may build the soil up above 
the water table so that with better drainage and aeration the 
substratum becomes transformed in such a way as to support 
