Soil and Cultivation.—Cress will flourish in any fair garden soil, and is always best when grown early or late in the season. The seed vegetates quickly, and the plants grow rapidly. As they are milder and more tender while young, the seed should be sown in succession, at intervals of about a fortnight; making the first sowing early in April. Rake the surface of the ground fine and smooth, and sow the seed rather thickly, in shallow drills six or eight inches apart. Half an ounce of seed will be sufficient for thirty feet of drill.
To raise Seed.—Leave a dozen strong plants of the first sowing uncut. They will ripen their seed in August, and yield a quantity sufficient for the supply of a garden of ordinary size.
Use.—The leaves, while young, have a warm, pungent taste; and are eaten as a salad, either separately, or mixed with lettuce or other salad plants. The leaves should be cut or plucked before the plant has run to flower, as they then become acrid and unpalatable. The curled varieties are also used for garnishing.
Broad-Leaved Cress.
A coarse variety, with broad, spatulate leaves. It is sometimes grown for feeding poultry, and is also used for soups; but it is less desirable as a salad than most of the other sorts.
Common or Plain-Leaved Cress.
This is the variety most generally cultivated. It has plain leaves, and consequently is not so desirable a sort for garnishing. As a salad kind, it is tender and delicate, and considered equal, if not superior, to the Curled varieties.
Curled Cress.
Garnishing Cress.
Leaves larger than those of the common plain variety, of a fine green color, and frilled and curled on the borders in the manner of some kinds of Parsley. It is used as a salad, and is also employed as a garnish. It is very liable to degenerate by becoming gradually less curled. To keep the variety pure, select only the finest curled plants for seed.