XX 



CRESS 



IF spring water is accessible, an abundant sup- 

 ply of this stimulating salad plant may be grown, 

 even enough for the neighborhood, with no trouble 

 but the sowing of the seed. This persistent peren- 

 nial, once given a start, grows on forever so long 

 as 1 the water from the spring continues to flow. 

 Along the border of the garden that has yielded 

 such rich and varied returns is a narrow open 

 stream, the overflow from the home spring. It 

 lies at the foot of the orchard slope where the 

 flickers call, an ever-living exhaustless spring, 

 with its source deep back in the hillside above. 

 The bank of this spring ditch is a part of the 

 perennial strip of the garden. On the moist banks 

 and in the wet grass at the mouth of the spring, 

 the water-cress thrives. Every spring, long be- 

 fore the last snow and ice are gone from the hill- 

 side, its fresh green marks the course of the open 

 stream. The peppermint also grows near the 

 spring; and, when its pungent fragrance comes 

 from the wet grass, the water-cress is at its best, 

 its fresh crisp shoots spicy and appetizing and 

 enticing. Bread and butter and water-cress salad 



141 



