Sweet Herbs and Small Salads 201 



spring water that has passed through a chalky subsoil, while the " green " 

 Cress flourishes in clean running river or canal water, the latter being 

 considered better by specialists. Another point of difference is that the 

 " brown " Cress is best for winter and spring sale, from Christmas to the 

 middle of June, while the "green" is favoured at other times. 



In most places Watercress is grown in natural spring or river water in 

 beds or ditches, sometimes arranged in terraces and varying in width from 

 a few feet to 20 or 30 ft., the depth in all cases being only 3 or 4 in. 

 At Chesham, Bucks, however, Messrs. Beckley & Holliman have converted 

 10 ac. of gravel pits into excellent Watercress beds by means of artesian 

 wells. These are sunk to a depth of 120 to 150 ft., with a 4-in. bore, 

 and cost from 15 to 50 each. Each well throws about 1000 gall, of 

 pure spring water per hour through the deep layers of chalk in the valley 

 of the Chess. The main crop consists of "brown" Cress, although where 

 the softer water from the Chess is available a certain amount of "green" 

 Cress is also grown in about another 5 ac. The artesian well water has 

 the advantage of being always of the same temperature (about 40 F.) 

 in winter and summer, and as the beds slope gently from one end to 

 the other there is always a stream of fresh, cool water running through 

 the beds, which in this case vary from 30 to 35 ft. in width to 300 ft. 

 or a little more in length, with a pathway about 4 ft. wide separating 

 one bed from another. 



Watercress is propagated by pieces of the plants placed in beds that 

 have been cleaned out with hard bristle brooms, so that the gravelly 

 bottom is quite freed from muddy deposit and weedy vegetation. The 

 cuttings are placed in the stream with the heads facing downhill, and 

 they root and grow so readily that picking may be commenced about 

 six or eight weeks afterwards. Half the area is planted each year, 

 between the middle of June and Christmas, and each bed is cut syste- 

 matically every six or eight weeks during the year with a kind of shoe- 

 maker's knife. When the growth in spring, however, is too rapid, the 

 plants are pulled out, roots and all, to give space to the others, and are 

 then taken to watersheds and cut and packed for market. The men 

 engaged in this work wear strong leather boots coming well above the 

 knees. These boots cost about 50s. a pair, and last about eighteen months. 

 Besides cutting and packing, the beds must be kept free from dead or 

 decaying leaves and shoots, and also from scum. For this purpose 

 toothless wooden rakes are passed over the plants in the direction of the 

 stream, and all refuse is thrown on to the adjoining pathways, from 

 which it soon melts away to nothing. It may sound curious in connec- 

 tion with an aquatic plant, but growers like to have nice warm rains 

 falling on the Watercress beds in spring, as growth is thus greatly in- 

 creased and larger quantities can be cut for market. 



Watercress after cutting is washed and cleaned from old or yellowing 

 leaves in the pure running water, and is then packed, bunched or un- 

 bunched, in "flats" holding 56 Ib. net, or in "half -flats" holding 28 Ib. 



