142 A HOME VEOETABLE-GARDEN 



are supper enough, any day in the early spring. 

 Tired with the monotony of the winter fare, the 

 peppery water-cress refreshes and stimulates the 

 appetite and leaves a new hungry taste. Once 

 started, this spring relish cares entirely for itself. 

 Among the wet grasses around the spring, along 

 the damp border of the little stream, wherever 

 the water from the spring works its way, the 

 water-cress spreads its spicy green. 



If you do not own a spring, you may possibly 

 have a real brook running through the pasture 

 hills. Scatter the seeds in the wet rich soil near 

 the running water and find the cress ready for 

 the picnic supper that you are sure to have often 

 by the side of the cool shady brook. For growing 

 water-cress, the neighbor's brook is yours; but be 

 certain that the water is pure. 



Perhaps you have no spring; and no brook can 

 be found. Then we will merely do our best with 

 the garden variety or pepper-grass. Some kinds 

 of this common garden cress, like "Extra Curled," 

 have beautifully curled foliage with rich com- 

 pact growth. When started in the early spring 

 in a moist shady place, kept fresh and crisp 

 with plenty of water, and gathered while young 

 and tender, pepper-grass does very well. Gar- 

 den cress keeps tender and fresh only a few 

 days. Gather it all before any sign of the flower- 

 buds appear. Pepper-grass might surely be given 

 a place in the city garden, under the cherry-tree 



