32 NATURAL HERBAGE AS A GUIDE. 



usually wet moors and hills, a fact which can undoubtedly 

 be attributed to the abnormally low rainfall from January 

 to July of that year. 



Several plants which flourish on peat or wet peat soils 

 are very safe guides in making decisions as to what is 

 worth draining. These are rushes, both single and tufted, 

 the former being the more common, and bog-myrtle. 

 Experience has proved that, almost without exception, 

 where any one or all of these are abundant along with 

 grasses or heath or both, the ground may be profitably 

 planted after it is sufficiently drained. The single rush, 

 however, is found at times in fair quantity on flat swampy 

 ground of deep peat, which it may be very difficult to 

 drain thoroughly, and which in most cases had better be 

 left for experiment. 



Certain plants which are always to be found on good 

 planting-land may be enumerated, although they are really 

 of more guidance, when considered along with the plants 

 among which they are found, for deciding what class of 

 tree is likely to prove most successful. They are : all good 

 pasture grasses, bracken and ferns, and heath on dry 

 land, provided it is well mixed with grasses. Ling also is 

 an omen of fair soil, provided it be well mixed with grass 

 on dry ground ; but the ground generally is poorer, 

 frequently very much so, and hard and shallow. Its value 

 as a guide may be estimated more or less accurately by 

 considering the nature, percentage, and vigour of the 

 grasses found along with it; generally, the less grass 

 the poorer the quality of the soil. Further, plants are 

 proportionately longer in becoming established and slower 

 in growth. This is still more marked if the ling is of 

 stunted growth on bare, hard land. 



The best planting-ground of all is that which has been 

 cleared of a crop of scrub or coppice, oak, ash, birch, or 

 hazel, or a mixture of two or more of them; although 

 exceptions to this may be found where the crop has been 



