Select a level piece of land, with a stream running through it. Mark out the beds, 5, 10, 15 or 20 feet wide. Dig out all the soil from one to four feet deep, according to the locality. Dig out the beds six inches deeper than water freezes in your locality, so you can fill your bed with water that depth in the fall; then the roots of the water-cress will not freeze during the winter. If you have to dig the beds more than one foot deep, I would advise you to make the beds 15 or 20 feet wide. Drive some cedar posts into the ground five feet apart each way, so that they stand eight inches high ; upon them place planks 12 inches wide and two inches thick. These are to walk upon, so you can pick the water-cress without getting into the water or bruising the water-cress, as it does not do to be roughly handled. If the land slopes much, you must leave a narrow mound of soil across the beds at short distances, so that you can keep the water at a regular height. Cut a narrow opening from the brook to let the water into the first bed; also cut a narrow channel through each mound, so you can have running water gently passing through all the beds and out of the last.

Keep the beds from two to three inches deep with fresh running water, and you will have highly flavored, crisp water-cress: A sandy or gravelly bottom suits water-cress best, and an occasional fertilizing with some manure-water during the summer will increase the quantity and size.

Procure some seed from a seedsman. Sow it the last week in July on some damp piece of land, or anywhere else will do if kept moist by watering. It will soon germinate. When the seedlings are large enough to handle, take them up and plant them singly in your beds one foot each way. Turn the water into your beds to the depth required, and nothing more is to be done till the fall, when you must see that the beds are filled with water to a sufficient depth to protect the roots from freezing during the winter.

If there is any water-cress in your neighborhood, you can cut the branches off and trim them the same as a pansy cutting ; take a pointed stick and plant them in the soil of your cress beds, one foot each way, the same as you would lettuce or cabbage plants. They will root at every joint; in fact, all along the branch. It would be a good plan to let the water out every two or three years, pull up all the water-cress, roots and stems, spread a little rotted manure over the beds, then plant it with fresh cuttings or rooted plants. By this means you will have fine deep green, broad-leaved cress, with larger sprays.

Cut the bunches off with a pair of scissors, or pinch them off with the thumb-nail. Be sure not to pull up the root. Get some bass or tying-grass, cut it into suitable lengths, and as you pick the water-cress, tie it. Dip the bunches into water, then put them lightly into large, open-sided wicker baskets, not packed, so that the air can pass through to keep them from heating. In this way it will keep fresh and green.

With well made cress beds, watered by a slow but continual stream of fresh water, cared for like other crops, picked carefully, and near a large city like Chicago or New York, cress would bring a return of from $2,000 to $3,000 per acre. - G. M. Stratton, Minnesota.