THE CAVE CULTURE OF MUSHROOMS. 65 



earth, sifted from the debris of the white stone, and 

 large heaps of stable manure accumulated for mushroom 

 growing, and undergoing preparation for it. That pre- 

 paration is different from what we are accustomed to give 

 it. It is ordinary stable manure, or very short stuff, 

 not droppings, and is thrown into heaps four or five feet 

 high, and perhaps thirty feet wide. The men were 

 employed turning this over, the mass being afterwards 

 stamped down with their feet, a water-cart and pots 

 beiug used to thoroughly water the manure where it is 

 dry and whitish. 



As many will feel an interest in the cave culture of 

 the mushroom, and perhaps wish to see it for themselves, 

 I may state that it is difficult to obtain permission to 

 visit the caves, and many persons would not like the 

 look of the "ladder" which affords an entrance. Even 

 with a well-known Parisian horticulturist I had some 

 difficulty in entering them. I was informed that one 

 champignonniste in the same neighbourhood demands the 

 exorbitant price of twenty francs for a visit to his cave. 

 As the visit is the work of some little time, no visitor 

 should put the cultivators to this trouble without offering 

 some slight recompense say not less than five francs. 

 The above cave is but a sample of many in the im- 

 mediate neighbourhood of Paris. 



We will next visit a mushroom-cave of another type 

 at some little distance from that city. It is situated 



F 



