MUSHROOM GROWING 73 



reverse is the fact, and so much are those fresh 

 Mushrooms appreciated that they are immediately 

 disposed of to regular customers at handsome prices 

 in the local markets. 



The Mushroom is a native of Britain, and can be 

 grown here to a greater perfection than in any other 

 part of the world, either out of doors in our fields, or 

 under artificial conditions in houses specially prepared, 

 or on the out-of-door system as practised by market 

 garden growers. 



With regard to the natural field crops in autumn 

 after a hot summer, followed by warm and heavy 

 showers of rain, on most of our warm and properly 

 drained meadow lands, the valuable Mushroom comes 

 up in generous quantities, and that without the help 

 of man ; indeed, as a welcome gift from the lap of 

 Nature, a gift of late years which has helped the 

 farmer more on many occasions to pay the rent than 

 have the ordinary cultivated crops of the farm. It is 

 a moot question, but beyond the province of this 

 work, as to whether field Mushrooms cannot be grown 

 profitably ; it is well worth a trial, and is a hint to 

 the Board of Agriculture and others interested. 

 The cultivation of the Mushroom is dealt with from 

 four different standpoints : (i) The professional or 

 private gardener ; (2) the amateur ; (3) the market 

 gardener ; and (4) the cottager, closing with a few 

 hints as to successful methods of field culture, with a 

 chapter of instructions how to manufacture Mush- 

 room spawn. 



