MUSHROOM GROWING 



culture, in 1902, the way was opened not 

 merely for the production of a high grade 

 mushroom spawn in the United States, but 

 also for its production by a selection method. 

 The perfection of the method and its appli- 

 cation by spawn growers required a few 

 years; and still further time was required 

 for this to react upon commercial mushroom 

 production. 



The experimental pure culture spawn 

 made and distributed under the auspices of 

 the Department of Agriculture was very 

 successful, so that certain irresponsible firms 

 took advantage of the new movement to ad- 

 vertise and sell quantities of poor product 

 — to the utter confusion of the amateur. In 

 time several reliable and painstaking grow- 

 ers mastered all necessary bacteriological 

 (pure culture) and mechanical details, ul- 

 timately launching highly successful enter- 

 prises. 



Poor spawn has been, to a considerable 

 extent, driven from the markets, and the 

 quality of the English spawn imported has 



90 



