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London County Council.
WATERCRESS.
Report by the Medical Officer, to which are appended reports by Dr. Frank Clowes,
the Council Chemist, and by Dr. A. C. Houston, on Watercress and Watercress
beds in the neighbourhood of London.
(Printed by order of the Council, 7th February, 1905.)
According to Mr. Shirley Hibberd, the cultivation of watercress* is a comparatively modern industry.
He notes that the plant, the wmtiirtiiim officinale of botanists, was first grown at Erfurt by Nicholas
Meissner about the middle of the sixteenth century ; while in this country Mr. Bradbury, in 1808, commenced
to grow watercress at Springhead, Northfleet. Mr. Bradbury described three varieties of the
plant, and Mr. Hibberd claims to have secured five really distinct varieties; among them he includes the
Erfurt variety (Erfurt sweet, Erfurt green or "Meissner's cress), the "brown cress of Springhead,"
and the "Newington purple cress." At the present time watercress dealers speak of the " small brown,"
the "large green," and the "large brown" varieties, but there appears to be no doubt that various
"sports" may be developed, as the result of manner of cultivation and other local circumstances ; indeed
Mr. Hibberd states that "the beautiful brown cress of Springhead when planted in clay land, where the
water is often turbid when charged with the washings from meadows, will soon lose its fine colour and
become more or less bronzy or purplish green;" while "in like manner the robust and handsome Newington
purple cress will, if taken from its native loam, and planted in poor gravel or chalk, lose much of its
vigour and fatness and of its purple colour also, and become in a few years a brown cress."
Mr. Henry May hew caused enquiries to be made in 1851 at various markets in London from which
he concluded (" London Labour and the London Poor"') that some 15,000,000 bunches of watercress were
sold in London in a year; again, Mr. Hibberd quotes a statement, relating apparently to about the
same period, made in " Wynter's Curiosities of Civilization," to the effect that" the consumption of watercress
in London averages from three to four tons per week." Of course, much more is consumed in
summer than in winter. It appears certain that the actual amount of watercress sold in London has considerably
increased of late years, though it is open to question whether very much more watercress is eaten
per head of population than was the case 30 years ago. On watercress farms of a total extent of some
20 acres the output in 1903 amounted to upwards of 200 tons, say ten tons per acre. Again, the total
acreage of farms visited by the Council's inspectors within 50 miles of London works out at over 200
acres. If it be assumed that the total yield of, say, 75 per cent, of this acreage, i.e., of 150 acres, finds
its way to London, this would give a total consumption of 1,500 tons in the year, which is probably not
an excessive estimate, for in the height of the season particular farms of about ten acres in extent are
known to have dispatched as much as three or four tons in a day to London, while farms of some 40
acres in extent sent to London in the course of last year nearly 350 tons of watercress.
Watercress has been regarded in the past as being not merely a food, but as possessing also
medicinal properties. Mr. Shirley Hibberd cites Lemery, who wrote in 1704 to the effect that" there is no
herb whose virtues are more conspicuous and great than those of cresses"; the garden cress was even
deemed to give "sharpnesse and readinesse to wit"; the watercress, according to a medical authority
quoted by Mr. Hibberd, was "vaunted for its efficacy in all cases in which the digestive organs are weak, in
cachexia, in scurvy, in scrofula, and lymphatism," and, indeed, watercress is said to have entered largely
into the composition of the "sirop antiscorbutique" of the French pharmacopoeia. According to
Culpeper (The Complete Herbal) watercress "is an herb under the dominion of the moon." He holds
it to be "powerful against the scurvy, and to cleanse the blood and humours." He recommends the juice
of the leaves for application to freckles, pimples, etc., and admixed with vinegar for application to the
foreheads of those "that are dull and drowsy." "Watercress pottage," he says, "is a good remedy to
cleanse the blood in the spring, and help headaches, and eradicate the gross humours winter lias left
behind; those that would live in health," he adds, "may use it if they please; if they will not, I cannot
help it."
It was no doubt the discovery that certain forms of disease are spread by the agency of water
which first caused attention to be directed to the conditions under which the growth of watercress
was carried on. Mr. Shirley Hibberd declares that " the finest cresses supplied to the markets, and
especially to the London markets, are for the most part produced in the purest water and the purest
air. The rills that flow cold and bright through pure and purifying chalk strata produce the best
brown cresses; those of a dark green or purple colour are, generally speaking, the produce of waters
originating in and flowing through alluvial strata and the more likely to be tainted with sewage." The
same writer points out that " there is something to be said against sewage-grown water plants that
* Home culture of watercress. F. W. Allen. London, 1878.
4058—1,000-8.7.05]
S.S./17.58