CULTIVATION OF THE WATER-CRESS. 
45 
in a certain number of moons all would be right 
again.” 
In a report from one of the commissioners, made 
in 1767, it was ascertained that among those planters 
of the provinces who had propagated new varieties 
from the seed-balls of healthy tubers, not a rotten 
potatoe had been seen. 
(а) During the last 10 years it has been observed 
in some parts of Germany, that the potatoe has ex¬ 
hibited a marked change in its vital powers, and as 
long ago as 1830, a disease appeared which, within 
a short time, destroyed thousands of bushels. This, 
however, was the dry gangrene (Kartoffelfaule), 
which speedily changed the tubers into a brown, dry 
powder, and rendered them unfit for every kind of 
use. The disease, at that time, was thought to be 
caused by small, white insects, resembling cheese- 
mites, which were found in the interior of the po¬ 
tatoe, and were believed to be transformed into 
living flies. 
(б) The causes for the disease have been sug¬ 
gested to Professor Lindley, and commented upon 
by him as follows:—1. The bad season of 1845; 
2. Attacks of parasitical fungi; 3. Insects, worms 
(the idlest of all speculations); 4. Frost; 5. Light¬ 
ning ; 6. Exhausted vitality; 7. Bad cultivation ; 
8. Guano or other manures; 9. Fog from the ocean ; 
10. Miasmata, such as produce cholera in man, and 
murrain in cattle. The last explaining an unknown 
cause by an unknown agency, whose mode of action 
in the first instance is beyond human perception, 
may be taken as the last and best refuge of theorists, 
for it is alike incapable of proof or disproof. 
Of the remainder we shall only say that they 
appear to us to be all untenable. Even the season 
of 1845, which seemed to us and so many others 
peculiarly suited to bring on the affection, we long 
ago disclaimed as a true cause ; for irresistible evi¬ 
dence to the contrary accumulated during the winter. 
In fact, no theory of the potatoe disease will satisfy 
the conditions of the problem, unless it explains 
the following unquestionable facts :— 
1. It has for some years past been violent in St. 
Helena. 
2. It appeared in the year 1845 at Genoa and 
Lisbon, and at Grahamstown in the Cape Colony, 
exclusively in potatoe crops obtained from English 
seed,” and therefore of the growth of 1844. 
3. It appeared in 1845 in the Bermudas, in fields 
cropped with potatoes obtained from the United 
States, and not in those which had been cropped 
with Bermuda sets. 
4. It has broken out in New Holland, upon the 
authority of Dr. Francis Campbell, in a letter to the 
Sydney Morning Herald, dated March 18th, 1846. 
5. It was little known in bog or moss-land in 
1845, and now has broken out there with as much 
violence as elsewhere. 
6. It is accompanied by an increased excitability 
of the potatoes both young and old. 
7. It invariably begins as a brown decay of the 
bark of the potatoe-stem, under ground, and an inch 
or two above its origin from the old set. To this 
we have never yet found an exception; all the 
blotching and searing of leaves are long posterior 
to this. 
8. It has broken out at this moment (Aug. 12, 
1846), in crops obtained on well-drained unmanured 
land from sets imported from Naples, the Azores, 
Oporto, and New Granada, every one of which 
places was reported to be uninfected— Gardener’s 
Chronicle. 
CULTIVATION OF THE WATER-CRESS. 
The common cress ( Nasturtium officinale ), well 
known for its highly salutary and antiscorbutic 
properties, presents two varieties, the green and the 
blue, which, like most cultivated plants, have been 
rendered far superior to what they were in their 
indigenous state; being less acrid, and not so liable 
to contract the taste of slime and mud as those found 
in marshes, ditches, and brooks. The history of 
the cultivation of this plant on the continent of 
Europe affords some interesting particulars, which 
will serve to exemplify the advantages that accrue, 
with proper attention, apparently from the humblest 
object. 
About the beginning of the present century, an 
attempt was made to form cress grounds in the 
neighborhood of Paris, similar to those then com¬ 
mon on the banks of the Rhine, by the Count de 
Lasteyrie ; but without success ; while the markets 
of that capital were supplied only by persons who 
travelled to distances, somtimes of 40 leagues, col¬ 
lecting the cress wherever it could be found. The 
supply was seldom sufficient to satisfy the limited 
demand, although it frequently consisted of nothing 
more than bunches of marshy plants masked by a 
few sprigs of the genuine vegetable. In the winter 
of 1809, Monsieur Cardon, then principal director 
of the hospital chest of the grand army, was quar¬ 
tered with his staff at Erfurt, the capital of Upper 
Thuringia. Walking one day in the environs of 
the city, when the earth was covered with snow, 
he was astonished by the sight of several long 
trenches, from 10 to 12 feet in width, covered with 
the most brilliant green. Curious to know the 
cause of what appeared to be a phenomenon at that 
season, he walked towards them, and perceived 
with the greatest surprise that the trenches formed 
a large plantation of water-cress, presenting the 
aspect of a verdant carpet on a surface in every 
direction white with snow. In answer to his in¬ 
quiries, M. Cardon learned that the plantations had 
existed for many years, and belonged to the author¬ 
ities of the city, from whom they were rented by 
the cultivators at the annual sum of $12,000. Since 
that time, however, their value has greatly in¬ 
creased. From a statement published in 1830, we 
find that the annual return then amounted to more 
than $40,000; and that the cress, highly esteemed 
for its purity and superior qualities, was sold in all 
the cities on the Rhine, and in the markets at Ber¬ 
lin, at a distance of 120 miles from the place of its 
growth. M. Cardon foresaw the benefits that might 
be expected to rise from the introduction of this 
branch of horticultural industry into the neighbor¬ 
hood of Paris; and, after a long search, found 12 
acres of a thin sandy alluvium at St." Leonard, in 
the valley of the Nonette, between Senlis and Chan¬ 
tilly, which, containing many beautifully limpid 
springs at a temperature of 59°, appeared to be well 
adapted for a cress plantation. He engaged two 
well-informed individuals from Erfurt who wer.- 
