HOW WATERCRESS IS GROWN.

Northern Advocate, 27 January 1906, Page 6 (Supplement)

HOW WATERCRESS IS GROWN.

Many people are of the opinion that the watercress of commerce is grown in any ditch or stream. This is far from being the case. The i plant certainly grows wild in various places ; but the crop secured from this :ource is infinitesimal. Nor is watercress so easily grown as most people imagine. To be anything like successful, the grower must be as much a specialist as the farmer or gardener. All waters are not suitable for the cultivation of the plants nor all soils. Again, the water may bo too swift or- sluggish, too deep or too shallow, and while the winter cress may thrive in one water, the summer crop prefers another. The water that flows through a chalk formation with a superstructure of gravel is what the plants mostly prefer. Watercress will not grow in water at a low temperature, but if the grower can assure an ample and continuous supply at a little over 50dg. Fahrenheit, the? plant can be grown in the coldest weather. Once yearly every, bed has to be drained, thoroughly cleaned and cultivated. In replanting, "sets " or cuttings are used in preference to* seeds, as with the latter the beds would not come into bearing for a year or more* To keep up the quality of the stock, plants are frequently obtained from other parts of the country. All this care and outlay, however, has its reward ; five, six, or even seven cuts are taken off 'a well-man-aged bed during the season, and from the y beds of a large grower,, say one cultivating twenty acres, watercress will be gathered every working day . throughout the year ; a farm of this size sending out as much as four or five tons weekly air through the winter, and infinitely more throughout Oie summer. It is a rather picturesque, sight to see the cutters wading in their long, water-tight beots through the luxuriant beds, shearing off the succulent tops with their keen/knives. When gathered, the cress is packed in "flats "or baskets at once, or moved to, a more convenient place where it is tied, up in bundles. These, ai*e then packed in the flats, which are thoroughly soaked in cool running water before being loaded in the carts. The main source of the watercress supply is the Colne Valley and though there are beds in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and elsewhere, the growers in the basin of the Thames send tons of cress to th« North. Lovers of this dainty greenmeat should not be frightened off by fear of typhoid. So long as it is grown in pure water, there is not the least danger. None of the reputable growi ers would allow their beds to be con-i taminated by sewage or other obnoxious matter, for though the plant would grow more luxuriantly, the flavour would be injured, and the cress made more liable to take heat and spoil in the transit;, ' ,