Chap. XXX.] MUSHROOM-CULTURE IN CAVES UNDER PARIS. 525 



The daily production of Mushrooms in and around Paris is 

 estimated at ahout twenty-five tons, worth about £1000, or close 

 upon £400,000 per annum. This goes either to the market, to 

 the preserved-provision manufacturer, or to the provinces. One 

 preserved-vegetable factory takes no less than two hundred tons 

 of Mushrooms a year. Growers make special arrangements with 

 large consumers at an all-round price of ahout £2 10s. per 

 hundredweight. One of the largest growers is M. Gerard of 

 Houilles and the quarries near St. Denis. He employs nineteen 

 horses and fifty men, and his daily expenses amount to £20. 

 He has over four miles' length of iDods in his different quarries. 

 M. Eenaudot, of Mery-sur-Oise, sends eighteen tons of Mushrooms 

 to market every month. There are in Paris about fifty agents 

 who have the monopoly of the trade, and who supply the shops 

 and restaurants, the stalls in the markets, the manufacturers of 

 preserved vegetables, and, to a certain extent, the provinces. In 

 addition to those eaten fresh. Mushrooms are preserved in large 

 quantities in a variety of ways, by drying, by desiccation, by 

 grating to powder, by bottling in butter or oil, and also in tins. 



Cavc-mitshrooms as gathered. 



