MARKET CONDITIONS. 11 



In the United States fresh mushrooms have only recently been of 

 any importance commercially, although florists and gardeners of 

 English and French training have long been successful growers on 

 a small scale, Nevertheless, during the past decade or so, the record 

 of failures has been most conspicuous, and it is certain that of the 

 many who attempted this work onlj?^ a few, relatively, were uniformly 

 successfid. 



The conditions under which mushrooms may be successfully grown 

 are limited, and intelligent attention is therefore essential. It must 

 be said, moreover, that the majority of failures may be directly 

 traced to erroneous ideas as to the cultural requisites, or to a reckless 

 disregard of conditions. The essential conditions will be subse- 

 quently defined in detail, but it may be stated here that failures are 

 usually due to one or more of the following causes: (1) Poor spawn; 

 (2) very poor manure; (3) unfavorable temperature; and (4) heavy 

 watering during the early stages of growth. 



Under suitable conditions mushrooms may be grown with assur- 

 ance of success. Ordinarily they are grown only where the condi- 

 tions may be controlled, and success should therefore be invariable. 



MARKET CONDITIONS. 



In the vicinity of Paris the mushroom industry has been remark- 

 ably developed during the past eight or ten years. The total product 

 sold through the central market of Paris in 1898 was nearly 4,000,000 

 pounds; the quantity for 1900 is given as approximately 8,500,000 

 pounds, and for 1901 nearly 10,000,000 pounds. These figures show 

 most convincingly the present status of the mushroom industry in 

 France. It may be safely assumed that more than one-third of this 

 quantity is consumed in a fresh state in and about the city. The 

 growth of the canning industry during this period has also been 

 remarkable. In 1898 about 1,800,000 pounds were preserved, while in 

 1901 the canned product amounted to nearly 6,200,000 pounds. Dur- 

 ing 1901 the approximate monthly production of mushrooms ranged 

 from 651,000 pounds to 985,000 pounds, from which it is evident that 

 these caves yield heavily throughout the year. In some instances 

 growers are able to get a crop every four or five months. 



It is extremely difficult to estimate the quantity of mushrooms 

 grown in the United States, It is certain, however, that the produc- 

 tion has increased very greatly, and i)articularly within the last four 

 or five years. In the vicinity of several of our larger cities there are 

 to-day individual growers who produce more than the total commer- 

 cial output in the neighborhood of those cities ten years ago. 



There is now a very good open market for fresh mushrooms in a 

 few of the larger cities, although many large growers continue to 



