90 MUSHROOM CULTURE. 



for their growth. I read in a gardening journal that 

 " it is impossible to command a crop of out-door mush- 

 rooms/-' I am positive that it can be done with almost 

 as much certainty as any other crop, provided we take 

 into consideration certain conditions. Of course, we 

 must remember its natural wants ; the more we do so, 

 the more certain of success we may be. We know that 

 it grows most abundantly in rich, upland pastures where 

 water does not lie, associated with the meadow foxtail, 

 meadow and hard fescue and cock's-foot grasses, clovers, 

 cowslips, daisies, yarrow, &c., and also with the thistles 

 (Cnicus lanceolatus and C. arvensis), and other plants fond 

 of similar soils. We know that it is rarely found where 

 the marsh plume-thistle (Cnicus palustris), tufted hair- 

 grass, and other marsh grasses and plants abound, and 

 from the presence or absence of these plants we may easily 

 make up our minds as to the positions that suit it best. 

 Now, it has long since ben proved in gardens that it is 

 quite possible to cultivate plants to a much higher degree 

 of perfection than they ever attain in a wild state, under 

 conditions entirely different, and it is not improbable 

 that we should be able to grow the common mush- 

 room in soils and positions far removed from those in 

 which it naturally occurs. But there is no occasion for 

 anything of the kind. It loves well-drained and dry 

 pastures and meadows, and is not the country covered 

 with such? 



