CHAPTER XX. 



GROWING MUSHROOMS IN RIDGES OUT OF DOORS 

 AROUND LONDON. 



In the preface to Kitchen and Market Gardening 

 (London) is the following : 



"Mr. W. Falconer and Mr. C. W. Shaw made, in 

 connection with the London Garden, what we believe 

 to be the first attempt at long and systematic observa- 

 tion of the best culture as it is in London market gar- 

 dens." This is mentioned to indicate that the writer 

 speaks on this subject from experience. And although 

 it is now seventeen years since I became disconnected with 

 the London market gardens, by revisiting them a few 

 years ago, and by correspondence and the horticultural 

 press, I have endeavored to keep informed of all changes 

 of methods and improvements in culture as practiced 

 there. At that time Steele, Bagley, Broadbent, Dancer, 

 Pocoek and Myatt were among the largest and best gar- 

 deners around London, and since then several of these 

 grand old gentlemen have passed away and their fields 

 have been cut up and built upon. At that time mush- 

 rooms were one of the general crops, as were snap beans 

 or cauliflower, and in their season were planted as a 

 matter of course. To-day they have become a specialty, 

 and some gardeners devote their whole energy to mush- 

 room-growing alone, and make from $2000 to $5000 a 

 year clear profit from one acre of mushrooms, and that, 

 too, from ridges in the open field ! There is no other 

 field crop that yields such a largo profit. There they 

 get twenty-four to forty-eight cents a pound for their 



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