234 Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 



Art. V. Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management, in a Series 

 of Letters to the Conductor. By James Barnes, Gardener to the 

 Right Honourable Lady Rolle. 



{Continued from p. ] 66.) 



Letter XIII. Groiving Mushrooms. 



I SHALL now fulfil the promise I made you when here, to give 

 you a description of my method of groiving mushrooms ; which is 

 a very easy, simple, but sure method to get them of a good 

 quality, and in great abundance, at all times of the year, if you 

 only manage to get good spawn. There is no vegetable cul- 

 tivated that is so sought after in a nobleman's or gentleman's 

 kitchen as the mushroom ; as I once heard a French man-cook 

 say, " de mushroom is de very life and soul of de kitchen." 



The prettiest and most interesting of all vegetable-growing 

 is the mushroom culture. I was always devotedly fond of it, 

 and have been in the practice of cultivating them for the last 

 25 years. I have seen many different systems tried, but have 

 decided on one settled one of my own for many years ; yet I 

 do not say it is superior to any other, neither am I recommend- 

 ing it, or asking any one to follow my advice. I have heard of 

 treatises being written on mushrooms, but I never met with one 

 of them ; neither did I ever read a book of any kind on garden- 

 ing, nor take any interest in reading them, until the Gardener's 

 Gazette made its appearance, as I always fancied it was loss 

 of time ; but now I am resolved to get every book I can 

 possibly procure, as from time to time I can buy them. Out 

 of the many hundreds of mushrooms, there are but three va- 

 rieties that I would venture to eat myself. I do not know the 

 specific name for any of them, but I will send you a specimen 

 of each as they come in season ; and, if you will be so kind as to 

 try and find out the proper names of them, you will greatly 

 oblige me, as, in my humble opinion, the public ought to be 

 particularly cautioned against purchasing and eating any of those 

 of a dangerous quality, which are sometimes offered for sale. 



I will tell you how I discovered the dangerous qualities of 

 mushrooms. When I was about eight years old I was sent to a 

 dairy for a can of milk, and I took care to go early before the 

 dairy-maid was up, that I might go foraging about, as I have 

 since seen all boys will do, after apples, crabs, nuts, walnuts, 

 chestnuts, or any other fruit I could lay hands on. That 

 very morning I was on one of those excursions, and fell in with 

 two fine-looking mushrooms under some chestnut trees. I took 

 them home and got my mother to cook them for my breakfast, 

 ate them, and went about my business ; but it was not long 

 before I was taken so dreadfully ill that I can never forget it. 



