CHAPTER XX. 
MUSHROOMS. 
Mushroom culture can be treated 
but briefly in the limited space afforded 
by a single chapter. But the mush- 
room is a winter crop of so much im- 
portance that it cannot be altogether 
omitted from this book. 
And yet it is not, properly speak- 
ing, an under-glass crop, because the 
greenhouse is not the best place in 
which to grow it; though it is grown 
to some extent under greenhouse benches. The changes 
of temperature of the greenhouse are hostile to success with 
mushrooms. Wherever there is light there is heat, and 
wherever the light penetrates there are contrasts between 
day and night temperatures. This is the only reason that 
‘dark places’’ are better for mushrooms. 
The mushroom in nature grows in the open field, in 
full daylight ; but it grows best at a season of the year when 
the day temperature is on the decrease and the soil tempera- 
ture makes the night comparatively warm. The ideal 
temperature for mushrooms is 57 degrees. 
Many experimenters have ceased to grow mushrooms 
on account of the uncertainty of the crop, but this is in 
reality an argument in its favor, since it tends to insure a 
good market and good prices for those growers who push on 
to success. The price for the past ten years, taking an 
average, has not been below fifty cents a pound ; and there 
is a fair margin of profit to the grower at this figure. Some 
expert growers have secured an average price of sixty cents, 
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