- 1900-1901. | Mushroom-Culture. 181 
it is formed into bricks. If the spawn is of good quality 
_ these bricks are quite sufficient to supply the beds with seed 
sufficient for the usual life of a bed, and will produce a large 
crop of mushrooms. It is very important that one should be 
able to judge one’s spawn, as very inferior stuff is often put on 
the market, with the result that failure is writ large. More- 
over, mushrooms will not grow—I am speaking in a com- 
mercial sense—in a dry locality. There have been many 
instances in our own neighbourhood of practical gardeners 
being tempted to grow them owing to our success and a 
market having been created for them, but their efforts have 
been comparatively futile. 
As some of you are aware, we have had to suffer the 
presence of a blight, which might have discouraged many. 
For some years we have been contending against it, groping in 
_ the dark both as to its cause and its remedy. At present we 
| have the promise of a cure. Able experts have been devoting 
a great deal of time to its investigation, and Mr Malthouse 
will tell you the result of his labours. Our success as mush- 
room growers naturally attracted the attention of all interested 
in the subject, both botanically and otherwise. When we 
_ began business fourteen years ago, the mushroom trade depended 
| largely on French importations, and found an easy market. 
_ At the present time it would be as difficult to find French 
mushrooms on the market as it was to find English ones at 
; that time. A comparison of any sample of French production 
_ with our ordinary crop will easily explain the reason. Our 
output is large, but we have a good market for all we pro- 
duce. We have created a local traffic which is as steady 
as potatoes; and but for the blight which has done us so 
much harm, we would no doubt have had “a guid conceit 
0’ oorsels.” 
It may be as well to say here—unless I am encroaching on 
Mr Malthouse’s preserves—that the blight is not in any way 
caused by the conditions under which we grow mushrooms. 
If that had been so, we would have been: compelled to retire 
beaten. We are satisfied that the blight has been introduced 
into the tunnel from the outside, and, having found a favourable 
resting-place, it is difficult to remove it. 
VOL. IV. 10) 
