NOVEMBER 28, 1874.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
~ SUTTONS’ 
PRIZE STOCKS of FARM SEEDS 
BIRMINGHAM CATTLE SHOW, 
& eee pee 
WILL EXHIBIT AN IMMENSE COLLECTION OF 
SPECIMENS OF THEIR 
Improved Varieties of Agricultural 
Roots, 
GROWN BY THEIR CUSTOMERS, 
Under Ordinary Field Cultivation in various 
Parts of the United Kingdom. 
THE COLLECTION WILL INCLUDE 
CIMENS OF 
SUTTONS? BERKSHIRE PRIZE YELLOW 
. GLOBE MANGEL, 
“a this year has produced, on the Earl of 
Warwick's Heathcote Warwick, 
; ary weight of 84 t acre, being 
heaviest Ries eve: ree: 
TONS’ MAMMOTH LONG RED 
MANGEL, 
upwards of 40 lb. each, and which 
Awarded, for the past six years, the 
‘the Birmingham Cattle Show. 
SUTTON CHAMPION SWEDE, 
wede in Cultivation, which has 
< tons | per acre (Irish) and been 
in Prizes, 
a Be eee i 
wil be pecsivsd at the Band, at 
of these guaris is 
S S s ue 
ay Be Soe a ae + g 
ON & SONS,- 
à — ae S AE 
E T ` À zr ri 
CR sees gy ger ey fons eae y 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1874. 
BOUND FOR poet da M. 
tinued f 
NE of the So ah of Lille (he is dead, 
and his establishment is converted into 
Ghat else) was a restaicrateur, Monsieur 
uy, who entertained at the sign of the Rocher 
de Cancale, in the old Marché aux Poules, or 
Fowl Market, close to the Grand Théatre. The 
cooking there was excellent, but the speciality 
was fillet-of-beefsteak with Mu shroom sauce ; 
but, in fact, whatever dish you ordered was in- 
evitably accompanied by stewed Mus 
the cause of which phenomena was not difficult 
to discover. 
M. man of energy, possessed at 
Lezennes—a village a little to the south-east of 
m 
forced vegetables for the supply of his restaur- 
ant. But it was useless to look for Mushrooms 
there, and yet they were nearer than might be 
imagined ; for, besides his garden and his fields 
above-ground, Puy was the owner of 
subterranean property in the 
conclusion of my last t is stated that the extent 
i whereas I 
B 
at Se luncheon, nor in company with 
people who like to play the fool, and who 
mistake bravado for wit and spiri 
Notes of this visit, taken at thie time, w 
published in an early volume of Household 
Words, they are abbreviated here to complete 
he story. 
You are conducted to a village inn, to which 
inn belongs a cellar. In the side of the cellar is 
a little door, through which you descend by 
wooden steps to the caverns below. The depth 
is nothing, and varies scarcely at ‘all; ; you are 
pc 36 feet beneath the surface. You are fur- 
eons with a little Peni a andai 
course, acconipanies ut the ) 
should resolve never to enter these underground 
uarries without a store of lucifers and wax- 
li ights:i in one pocket, and of biscuits in the other, 
ought not to be set down as either a poltroon or 
a fool. The spot to which you first descend is 
the centre of a series of irregular ramifications, 
extending hither and thither beneath the earth, 
running off to the right and 
starting away afresh for 4 or 5 leagues, no one 
knows whither, and is not a bit too anxious to 
ascertain. They are 3 or 4 yards wide on the 
average, and about as many high, cut through 
the soft limestone rock (which now and then 
falls in, in places), but are really of quite | 
irregular dimensions, sometimes so low and so 
narrow as only to 
Go | through which 
om. 
down, and which al 
without 
which the workmen could ; not continue their 
labours. Beyond the Mushro om culture, not a 
ray of light enters. Even amongst the Mush- 
rooms, and with a light, I should be sorry to 
stray and be left alone, Ta four-and-twenty 
hours given me to find my way back. 
Instead of bins or ea ag the Mushrooms 
here are grown on ridges about a couple of feet 
high, and o 
invariable condition of moisture, atmosphere, 
and darkness, They follow the w indings and 
run along poy ate of pat caverns, which are 
made to contain one, two, or three ridges, 
according p their breadth of floor, leaving a 
convenient pathway between each ridge for the 
labourers to walk and gather the produce, At 
į the time of my visit the growth was slack; I 
ee abeta told beforehand there were no Mush- 
: but I found ridges in all the inter- 
ee states between the first pimply symp- 
toms of t pox, to i it or 
as big as crown-pieces. 
were exhausted, and were soon to et g 
to be replaced by fresh materials for the gene- 
ration of fungi. 
The men who are employed constantly in 
Mushroom-growing in the carrières receive 
the garde, nary I don’t get bel so much 
do.” The ruddy bronzed com- 
speaker contrasted strangely 
with the waxy pallid face of our guide. The 
men work twelve hours a day ; consequently in 
winter they never see sunlight, except on Sun- 
toad sand féte da yi which beet bavet to them- 
field Ie are, not only in nce of 
losing che” amalas which light affords to the 
constitution, but also from chills, the imperfect 
ventilation of the place, and the gases emitted 
by the fermenting dung pres a with those 
from the sprouting Mushro 
On January 10, 1847, xf pay entered his 
caverns, to plan the arrangement of his future 
crop. He went on and on, thinking of rs 
ness, without dae that-he had lost h 
way. On attempting to return, he found that 
Sometimes he was obliged to crawl on his 
hands and knees, to proceed in what he be- 
lieved the right direction, but still he could 
not hit upon any beaten and recognisable por- 
tion of the pees E grotto, At last, his 
light zi p and s any. way, if 
w the pasarea a single | dang 
chin g roads, ; 
be mised, and search iid be 
Sale. for him. It was the wisest—in fact, the 
only thing, he could do. 
e remained in the dark all night, 
seated on the floor of the cavern, he knew not 
where. Next morning Madame Puy, his 
mother—M. Puy. was unmarried—finding that 
left, interlacing and | he did not return home to Lille to sleep as 
usual, felt sure that he had wandered too far in 
the carribres, She told me that she well 
remembered that day, and those which followed 
it. She immediately called upon her friends 
and neighbours to assist the workpeop le in 
ng a search. They readily ans) 
the appeals. incurrin 
ger. Them 
