A TALK ABOUT MUSHROOMS. 101 



Between twenty and thirty years ago the supply of midwinter 

 lettuce was obtained from cold-frames and hotbeds — an exceed- 

 ingly costly and laborious method — but prices ran high and 

 gardeners made a living. As winter salad was an expensive luxury 

 restricted to the wealthy, the demand was limited. Then the 

 South became prominent in truck gardening in winter, and shipped 

 its product to the North. This additional supply had the effect of 

 lowering the price, and northern gardeners had either to devise 

 some other means of growing lettuce in winter, than in outdoor 

 frames, or hand the business over to the South, for they could not 

 compete with the southern prices. Did they hand it over? Ride 

 out to Arlington, look upon the villages of greenhouses there for 

 forcing vegetables, and find the answer. No, they devised means 

 by which they produce a better and more marketable article than 

 they used to raise in frames. They do it at a third of the former 

 cost and in quantity impracticable by the old method, and they are 

 superseding the southern product in the market, and the northern 

 gardeners are making money. The cheap and plentiful truck of 

 the South gave lettuce to everybody, making its use universal and 

 the demand is insatiable. With no greater demand than we had 

 twenty-five years ago, the Arlington of today would swamp the 

 eastern market. 



And so it must be with mushrooms. The period of a limited 

 supply and high prices is past. A popular wave in mushroom 

 growing has set in, and it now behooves us to devise some 

 improved or new method of cultivation, by which we can produce 

 mushrooms at the low prices and yet make money. 



As now grown, mushrooms are a somewhat uncertain crop. We 

 may have had the most extraordinary success during the last year, 

 but may have only partial success this season, yet, so far as we 

 know, our materials and preparations were as good, and the care 

 the same in both cases. Now here are two points to discover : 

 First, What caused the success? Find that out and remember it. 

 Second, What caused the failure? Find that out too, so that in 

 the future we may avoid it. Don't grow mushrooms unless you 

 have a good place to grow them in. This must be under cover, 

 be it a shed, cellar, greenhouse, stable, or the like. Don't use 

 anything except the very best of materials," that is, good, fresh 

 horse manure, clean sweet loam, and Al spawn. Be exceedingly 

 careful in the preparation of the manure, for this is the most vital 



