106 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The cave I visited — belonging to a Mr. Eckerson — ]is the 

 largest and most successful in mushroom production. It is per- 

 haps fifteen or twenty acres in extent. After walking about three 

 hundred yards (without the help of torches it would be~the]jdarkest 

 place I was ever in), we came to the mushroom beds. Mr. Ecker- 

 son had naturally chosen a part of the cave where the roof and 

 floor were quite dry, and for that matter, I may add, perfectly 

 even and smooth. He had nearly three acres occupied^with the 

 beds in all stages of development — some producing, some]]comiug 

 in, others just spawned, and others being made up. He had some 

 beds in ridge shape, about three feet wide at the base and. two and 

 one-half feet high, tapering to a narrow ridge at the top. These, 

 he said, he did not like and would have no more of them. The. 

 flat beds were sixteen feet long, seven feet wide, and ten inches 

 deep. They are all made on the rock surface, and are kept neatly 

 in place bj^ hemlock boards, one foot wide and sixteen feet long. 

 The temperature of the cave would go up to 65° in summer and 

 never fall below 58° in winter, so it is nearly uniform the whole 

 year round. He procures his manure from neighboring towns, by 

 the carload. It appeared to have more straw in it than is usually 

 allowed in orthodox instructions, and it came from livery stables. 

 I asked Mr. Eckerson what spawn he used, and he said French 

 exclusively ; he had no use for the English article. From April 

 till October is his greatest harvest, as greenhouse mushrooms are 

 then about useless, being wormy, and cave mushrooms have the 

 market to themselves. 



He ships them in baskets, each holding five or six pounds, and they 

 netted him one dollar per pound the year through. New York and 

 Chicago are his markets. I have never seen any other mushrooms 

 like those grown in that deserted stone quarry. I believe they 

 would weigh thirty per cent more to the bushel than any surface 

 grown mushrooms. They were fat, juicy, rotund, solid, and 

 immaculately white. 



William Scott. 



Spawn: Tiik Amount Sold. — Three years ago, after careful 

 inquiry, I estimated that 4,500 pounds of French spawn, and 

 64,000 pounds of English or brick spawn, were imported into this 

 country annually. Since then, however, mushroom growing has 

 increased here very greatly and the importation of spawn has 

 augmented correspondingly — that is of the English, but not of the 



