238 



STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI. 



them under the present conditions in heating house structures, and 

 also when the market price of the mushrooms is very high, and can 

 be controlled largely by the grower. For this reason, if it were 

 possible to construct a house with some practical system of cooling 

 the air through the summer, and prevent the drip, the cultivation in 

 houses would probably be more profitable. 



For the past few years the writer has been giving some attention 

 to the different methods of the cultivation of mushrooms in America, 

 and in response to the growing interest for information concerning 



Figure 223. 



-View in Akron " tunnel," N. Y. Mushroom Co. 

 bear. Copyright. 



Beds beginning to 



the artificial cultivation of these plants, it has seemed well to add 

 this chapter on the cultivation of mushrooms to the second edition of 

 the present work. The cultivation as practiced in America exists 

 under a great variety of conditions. All of these conditions have 

 not been thoroughly investigated, and yet a sufficient number of 

 them have been rather carefully studied to warrant the preparation 

 of this chapter. The illustrations which have been made from time 

 to time, by flash light, of the cave culture of mushrooms in America, 

 as well as of the house culture, will serve to illustrate graphically 

 some of the stages in the progress of the work. For present purposes 



