MUSHROOM CULTURE. 



481 



every day during tlie gathering and earthing operations. 

 The most perfect cleanliness is observed everywhere in the 

 neighbourhood of these beds^ and the whole surface of each 

 avenue is covered by them, leaving passages of ten inches or a 

 foot between the beds. At the time of my visit (Sept. 29_, 

 1868) the crops of the cultivator were reduced to their lowest 

 ebbj and yet about 400 pounds per day were sent to market. 

 The average daily quantity from this cave is about 880 

 poundsj, and sometimes that is nearly doubled. It may be 

 supposed that the profits from such an extensive culture are 

 great ; and so they are, but the expense is great also. The 

 proprietor informed me that culture on a more limited scale 

 than he pursued last year at Mery gave the best return in 

 proportion to expense, the care and supervision required by 

 so many miles of beds being too great. 



All the manure employed is brought from Paris by rail, 

 as the place is twenty-five miles from that city by road. 

 In the first place, so much per horse per month is paid 

 in Paris for the manure ; then it has to be carted to the 

 railway station and loaded in the waggons ; next it is 

 brought to the station of Auvers, and afterwards carted a 

 couple of miles to the quarries, paying a toll for a bridge 

 over the Oise on the way. That surely is difiiculty enough 

 for a cultivator to begin with ! Then it is placed in great 

 flat heaps a yard, deep by about thirty long and ten wide, 

 not far removed from the mouth of the cave, and here it is 

 prepared, turned over and well mixed three times, and as a 

 rule watered twice. About five or six weeks are occupied 

 in the preparation, long manure requiring more time than 

 short. The watering is not usually done regularly over the 

 mass, but chiefly where it is dry and overheated. Every 

 day manure is brought from Paris j every day new beds are 

 made and old ones cleared out — the spent manure being 

 used for garden purposes, particularly in surfacing or 

 mulching, so as to prevent over-radiation from the ground 

 in summer. The chief advantage the cultivator here has is 

 the facility of taking his manure or anything else in or out 

 in carts, as easily as if the beds were made in the open air. 

 Near Paris, on the contrary, everything has to be sent up 



