WA TERCRESS-FA RMING 465 



in the autumn, but it depends very much on the 

 distance from the market, demand, etc., as to 

 whether it is worth while to cut and convey it 

 away for sale, for it is the earliest spring cress which 

 yields the best return. During the early summer 

 cress is cheap enough, for every brooklet yields 

 its store. The cress-growers aim at producing 

 plants with good long stalks, and maintain that 

 the latter are a greater delicacy than the leaves ; 

 moreover, such plants are more easily cut, and, 

 being more bulky, yield a better return, in a 

 pecuniary sense, than the smaller, shorter-stemmed 

 specimens. 



Any waste portions of a field, where there is 

 a good spring and the soil is suitable, can, with 

 a very trifling expenditure and comparatively 

 little labour, be readily utilized for the formation 

 of a watercress - bed ; the return is rapid and 

 sensible, especially if near to a good market or a 

 railway-station, and the beds, when once made, 

 require but occasional attention to secure the crop, 

 which, when gathered, is trimmed with long, 

 sharp knives, packed in square hampers styled 

 ' flats,' shaded with some sacking, and placed in 

 running water until the cart is ready to take them 

 away. 



It may be of interest to some of my readers to 

 know what the value of a watercress-bed may be. 

 From the information which I have collected, 

 probably much below the mark, I am given to 

 understand that every rod of ground may be ex- 



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