Development of the Vegetation of New York State 177 
larly as adjuncts to valley farm lands. This is not a plan to 
restrict the area of farm lands unless these lands can be 
shown to yield a larger prospective return in the long run in 
forest growth. In forming such a judgment one needs to be 
reinforced by a knowledge of soil conditions and of the prog- 
egress and results of the development of a forest cover. In 
fact this whole important matter of policy and its specific 
application is a field in which the knowledge of the soil spe- 
cialist, the forester, the botanist and other specialists may 
be profitably applied.and indeed is being applied extensively 
already. 
Taking a broad view of the State, then, as to the status of 
“man’s invasion of the land,” the native vegetation is 
searcely unmodified over any considerable area, but the vigor 
of its persistence and tendency to reéstablish itself is visible 
everywhere, and constitutes a force that must be reckoned 
with in so far as this vigor tends toward the invasion of valu- 
able farm lands (as for example in the invasion of pasture 
lands by shrubs, ete., and in the growth of forest weed-trees 
instead of desirable species on hill lands and in swamps or 
wet lands). On the other hand, this vigor of asserting itself 
on the part of our native vegetation constitutes one of the 
“forees of nature”? which may be controlled and utilized 
for productive purposes. Still more serious is the extent to 
which the character of the soil itself has been changed by 
human interference. Of course a lot of it has been put into 
a condition of permanent agriculture and this constitutes the 
largest resource of all, being indicated by the agreeable out- 
look of well kept fields and pastures and quite generally ot 
fairly well tended woodlots and the prosperous look of farm 
buildings and surroundings. But over a discouraging pro- 
portion of the State, the soil has been reduced by the human 
factor to a condition of unproductive yield expressed in 
heath shrub, ferns and moss mats, sweet fern, sumac and 
thorn shrub, aspen and fire cherry and white birch, dwarf 
juniper, bracken and pasture weeds. Certain cases may be 
specified more in detail. 
