132 THE BOOK OF USEFUL PLANTS 



are madelof the first or seed leaves of newly sown 

 cress, or white mustard. Frequent sowings keep 

 up the supply throughout the season. 



Water cress is a most wholesome and delicate 

 salad plant. It is best raised in a clear, small, 

 running brook. Next best is the margin of a pond. 

 Last, it grows in ordinary garden soil, if it be kept 

 moist through good culture, and freely treated to 

 water. 



Along roadsides one often sees brooks choked 

 with a luxuriant growtfi of cress. The tempta- 

 tion to gather a lot of it is almost irresistible. 

 The only question is : " Is the water polluted with 

 sewage?" Typhoid fever is certainly carried by 

 water cress from impure streams. So we usually 

 drive on, if we are well-informed as to the danger. 



To get cresses started in our own brook we 

 must sow the seed in a box, and as the little plants 

 come on, transplant them into the sand where the 

 flow is scarcely perceptible, and the water barely 

 covers the sand. When they are established 

 thin them by taking up and throwing into deeper 

 water, the ones the thinning removes. They will 

 catch root and multiply. 



Another way is to buy a bunch of water cress, 

 take out the fresh, new shoots and plant them, as 

 we would young ones from the seedbox. It is 



