WA TERCRESS-FA KM ING 463 



satisfactory return. What these conditions are, 

 and how it is cultivated, I will endeavour to explain. 



Firstly, the supply of water must be constant 

 and steady, and the nearer the beds are to the 

 spring-head, for spring- water is ever preferable 

 for the purpose, the better ; secondly, the soil 

 must be of a suitable nature ; thirdly, the bottom 

 of the beds must be hard and sound. 



As regards the first of these essentials, no matter 

 how carefully the beds may be prepared and 

 tended, cress grown in beds supplied with water 

 from a river will ever be inferior to that grown in 

 those supplied with spring-water, and in a hard 

 frost, the one thing, perhaps, most dreaded by the 

 watercress-farmer, the crop may entirely fail, or, 

 at all events, its growth be very seriously retarded, 

 When such weather prevails, the plants are beaten 

 down under water by means of long light switches, 

 or besoms made for the purpose, and are so kept 

 comparatively safe until the return of a more genial 

 temperature. 



As regards the soil most suitable for the growth 

 of watercress, chalk appears to be the best of all ; 

 for whilst it is capable of forming a good sound 

 bottom for the beds, it is also porous, the plants 

 readily take root and spread, and are thereby less 

 liable to be washed out. The young cress shoots 

 from the stool of the plants, and is not propagated 

 from the seed alone. 



That the beds should be hard and sound is 

 necessary, not only because they can be more 



