SPAWN-MAKING 



fered. With imported spawn it seemed 

 probable that the additional time involved 

 conditions of shipment, and the subsequent 

 storage methods in the United States all 

 tended to weaken or ruin the products. 

 Worst of all, it was found that spawn was 

 sometimes carried over from one season to 

 the next under the assumption that it was 

 "quite as good" as the fresher product. 



Spawn-making in the United States. 

 Meanwhile our attention was gradually 

 focused sharply upon the possibility of 

 spawn-making in the United States. By 

 English growers the information had been 

 offered that spawn-making in the United 

 States would not be successful on account of 

 climatic conditions, just as I had been as- 

 sured in France that the extreme conditions 

 would render mushroom culture unsatis- 

 factory. Through the development of a 

 method of securing pure cultures of Agari- 

 cus campestris and other mushrooms, orig- 

 inated by the writer while at the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agri- 



89 



