WA TERCRESS-FARMING 467 



little interest in the various operations connected 

 with the crop ; nevertheless, I cannot say that 

 my pleasure in so doing is unalloyed, for cress- 

 growing has been found to pay so well that 

 every available hole and corner in the parish has 

 been turned to account, much to the detriment 

 of the trout-fishing, the stream being tapped in 

 every direction ; moreover, when the fish run up 

 to the beds, as they do for the purpose of 

 spawning, they fare hardly at the hands of the 

 ' creasers,' and year by year they are diminishing 

 in number. The river, never too constant in 

 height where water-meadows abound, is rendered 

 still more unsteady, and constantly fouled and 

 thickened during the planting and cleaning of the 

 beds, one or other of which operations is for ever 

 going on. Then, again, the soft, marshy spots 

 so dear to snipe are gradually being cut out and 

 drained. War is also waged against the moor- 

 hens, these unfortunate birds being held in 

 abomination by the cress-growers, though they 

 inflict no harm on the cress-beds further than 

 by swimming about in them and eating the slugs 

 and water-snails which adhere to the stems and 

 leaves of the plants. I fear that ere long the 

 moorhens, snipe, and trout will have altogether 

 vanished from the scene. 



