AMERICAN INSTITUTE. X98 



©'xcellent, wholesome vegetable, having valuable medicinal hjge- 

 inic properties, effecting some cures without drugs, (all the cruci- 

 fers are anti- scorbutics; cabbage is a principal among them,) why 

 should we not have a constant supply by cultivation ? It is very 

 simple and easy. It is indeed now cultivated around Paris and 

 London on a very great scale. 



Water cress belongs to the numerous class of the Cruciferse. It 

 had been cultivated a long time in Germany, when Mr. Cardon, 

 an old director of the Hospital of the Grand Army, about the 

 year 1811, established cress nurseries near Paris, at Chantilly, 

 after those of Erfurth of Germany. It is now cultivated at 

 some seventeen or more places. 



These cress gardens or nurseries are fed by natural or artificial 

 streams of water. The garden is divided into ditches about ten 

 feet wide by twenty inches depth. The spaces of land between 

 the ditches are planted with cabbages, artichokes, &c., not an 

 inch of ground is lost. The seed may be sound in spring, but 

 does better in August by setting out tiie buds; Sii^all branches are 

 set out about four inches apart. When it has taken root well, 

 water is let in, by means of little gates, to the depth of three or 

 four inches, and kept so. After cutting the cress the ditch must 

 be let dry and some well rotted cow dung spread over the bottom 

 of the ditch, and by means of a plank put over the ditch we fix 

 the plants so as to let them have best chance to grow again. 



The heavy rains and frost are enemies of this garden, yet, by 

 letting in water enough the plants can be protected » from the lat- 

 ter. We draw off the surplus water as soon as the frost leaves 

 it. The goodness of the cress depends on the limpidity of the 

 water in which it grows. All this depends on management. 

 In 1853 Paris consumed 2,320,000 bunches, of about 250 gram- 

 mes weight, and in London 15,000,000 bunches a year. The 

 chief cress gardens of London are at Cookham, Shireham, Rich- 

 mond, Waltham Abbey and Springhead, near Gravesend. 



LOUIS ANDRE. 

 RASPBERRIES 



Are grown in Holland in a peculiar way, which we deem very 

 judicious. 



