[buller] presidential ADDRESS 



ginning of August, the desired result was frequently obtained: the 

 dung was found to be turning white. Masses of the infected 

 manure about the size of one's fist were then used to spawn other beds 

 from which Mushrooms were to be raised. It was only by using 

 spawn or lardons thus specially prepared that the beds could be made 

 financially successful. Before the discovery of the lardon method, 

 attempts at Mushroom culture were too full of risks to be generally 

 made. We do not know the name of the man who, at some time pre- 

 viously to the year 1700, discovered and taught the art of using spawn. 

 He remains unknown to fame. Perhaps he was a Parisian jardinier 

 with a little more originality than his fellows; but whoever he was, to 

 him belongs a large part of the credit for making possible the modern 

 industry of raising Mushrooms which is now extensively practised in 

 caves and special Mushroom houses, and which gives employment to 

 several thousands of workers.^ At the present day, at Paris, to obtain 

 vigorous spawn is still one of the greatest difficulties of Mushroom cul- 

 ture. Special searchers hunt over old manure piles in the country, and 

 thus often come across virgin spawn. This they bring to the city in 

 baskets and sell at a good price to the Mushroom growers who increase 

 it in amount by special culture.^ Also, virgin spawn is now raised from 

 spores in pure cultures by a Company in Paris and sold in cartridge- 

 like masses or cartouches f whilst, in the United States of America, 

 pure spawn has been prepared by propagating the interior hyphae of 

 young stipes.* The shape of the beds two centuries ago, as shown by 

 Tournefort's illustrations, was almost the same as that which one may 

 now see anywhere in the caves near Paris. Experience has shown that 

 this shape cannot be much altered without a sacrifice in economy.* 

 Tournefort's Plate not only contains the first illustration of artificial 

 Mushroom beds, but also the first representation of mycelial strands 

 showing the mode in which they swell out to form young Mushrooms. 



^ Fifteen hundred workers are employed in raising Mushrooms for the markets 

 of Paris alone. The value of the Parisian industry is upwards of 6,000,000 francs per 

 annum. Statistics collected by the Syndicat des Champignonnistes de France. 

 Vide M. P. M. Biers, La Culture du Champignon de couche, Bull, de la Soc. Mycolog. 

 de France, T. 24, 1908, p. 196. 



* This fact I have obtained by personal enquiry of the Mushroom growers when 

 visiting the Mushroom caves in the suburbs of Paris in 1912. 



' I have seen the cartouches in use at Paris. 



* B. M. Duggar, The Principles of Mushroom growing and Mushroom Spawn 

 making, U. S. Dep. of Agric, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. No. 85, 1905. 



^ The beds in the caves of Paris are almost triangular in cross-section, the base 

 being 40-60 cm. wide. The beds are placed in rows, side by side. The total length 

 of all the beds together, in the caves of Paris, has been estimated at 1460 kilometres. 

 Vide Biers, loc. cit. 



