20 The New York State College of Forestry 
of muck soil. This is no doubt in part due to the faet that in 
midsummer drouths the water table sinks quite below the sur- 
face of the underlying sand thus favoring more thorough 
decomposition. It is favored also by the fact that the sedge 
meadow is lightly pastured by stock while the new sedge shoots 
are tender. To improve this pasturage it appears to have been 
the practice to burn over patches of the meadow at a favorable 
time in the spring. One such burn of the spring of 1919 was 
closely examined in July of the same season. It was noted 
that the fire had killed back the old sedge, the few encroaching 
shrubs and most of the sphagnum to the level of the wet, dead 
sphagnum cover. All of these elements of the association were 
sending up new shoots, but it was obvious that the sedge stand 
recovers most promptly and that by this treatment its period 
of dominance is prolonged. 
With regard to the sphagnum matrix in general, it may be 
said to control the situation first because its dead and disin- 
tegrating shoots form the substratum upon which sedge and 
other species have to establish themselves and second, because 
its vigorous growth tends to submerge and smother them. 
While the bog surface is flatter in the sedge zone than else- 
where, even here sphagnum tends to form mounds by its vigor- 
ous climbing among the sedge shoots. What outcome this 
might have for the future of both sedge and sphagnum if left 
otherwise undisturbed was not clear, for with this increasing 
unevenness of surface the shrub invasion of the sedge meadow 
becomes notable (Figure 7), and the conclusion is drawn that 
this interaction between sedge and sphagnum whereby the sur- 
face becomes built wp mound-wise, accelerates the coming of 
this second stage in vegetation development whose culmina- 
tion is a close shrub association; i. e., temporarily a complete 
occupation of the ground by sphagnum-heath shrub vegetation. 
(2) The Sphagnum-Heath Shrub Association 
Relatively little of the eastern section of the bog, and none 
of the west section is at present wholly occupied by the meadow 
like sphagnum-sedge association. Figures 7 to 11 show the 
