48 THE PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 



to grow on bad land on good land, and the reverse. "We are 

 constantly finding weeds that are described as denizens of 

 the one class of land upon the other ; but the real point is, 

 that it is not so much the description of weed as the manner 

 in which it grows. Great, early, and vigorous growth is a 

 sign of quality in land, and a puny, badly developed growth 

 of natural herbage of any sort is a sign of poor land. 



Bracken (Pteris communis) is a good sign. Heath is a very 

 bad sign. So we see that the natural herbage may be 

 profitably studied by the land valuer with a view to giving 

 him a sound judgment. 



