HISTORICAL NOTES, 11 



Banks, early in the last century, who either saw or heard 

 of the method being practised in Germany. 



Mushrooms were grown for Covent Garden fully fifty years 

 ago, the chief supply in those days coming from a market 

 gardener named Steel, of Fnlham Fields, and Dancer, of 

 Chiswick, districts then famous for mark«t gardening, but 

 now covered by bricks and mortar. 



At the same period the French, market gardeners were 

 actively engaged in cultivating mushrooms in caves or dis- 

 used quarries, and making quite a small fortune out of the 

 industry. In due course the growth of mushrooms became 

 more general in. this country, and many misguided people 

 conceived the idea that, as in the case of the French garden- 

 ing industry, because it paid so well in Franc© it would be 

 bound to do so here. Everybody wanted to embark in 

 mushroom growing a few years ago, but alas ! few are now 

 engaged in the industry on a large scale. 



CHAPTER 11. 



MUSHROOM SPAWN. 



The primary essential in th© cultivation of mushrooms is 

 the " spawn." This may be obtained in a natural way or 

 in the form of " bricks " from a seedsman. The last-named 

 method is the one usually adopted, since the former requires 

 a good deal of skill and expert knowledge to obtain the 

 " spawn " in the right condition. 



What is Spawn? — Spawn is the vegetative part of a 

 fungus, that which gives birth to the Mushroom as we know 

 it. Technically, it is called the mycelium, a substance con- 

 sisting of white threads usually growing in a mass in manure. 



