90 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[ Jannaiy 29, 1891. 
the roof tree, the side wall, and the gutter of the dwelling ; that 
its supple stems yield the mast and the yard arm, the thwarts and 
the tiller, the ribs, and even the frame of the native craft ; that its 
joints form buckets and bowls, boxes and cases ; that its slender 
rods and its young growths are bound together into ladders and its 
larger ones into scaffolding, and its fibres twisted into ropes. 
Indeed, it would form a long catalogue if one were to enumerate 
all its adaptations to the necessities of domestic and daily life. 
As you proceed, at every station crowds of Burmese in gay 
dresses, natives of India, Chinese, Shans, land Karens show how 
effectually the traffic of this wondeiful country is being developed. 
Birds are numerous. Swallows, mynahs, blue jays, green parrots 
flit or sweep to and fro, and great flocks of pelicans feed in the 
swamps, or wheel in magnificent circles with huge outstretched 
wings. Bullocks and buffaloes are seen frequently in the fields, 
the former as beasts of draught, the latter drawing primitive 
ploughs through the irrigated swamps which are soon to be green 
with growing crops. At one station we saw a number of the finely 
ornamented racing bullock carts in which the Burmese rejoice, and 
crowds of their owners and of bystanders waiting for the sport, and 
ready to stake their rupees on the events, for the Burmese dearly 
love public games, and bet heavily on the result. After some hours 
the scenery changes ; jungle becomes predominant, and forest trees 
and leaves fringe the line. Native houses still appear here and 
there singly and in clusters, and the stations are still thronged by 
many-tinted crowds. As one comes north the trees become larger, 
and the rail runs through dense forest, and among the branches are 
seen thousands of Orchids. Huge Grasses 12 to 15 feet high grow 
by the acre in damp places, and their big flower spikes shine in the 
blazing sun like burnished silver. The undergrowth is rich and 
varied, though at this season flowers are scarce, for it is getting on 
for Christmas, and in the shade the temperature is only at 85°. At 
last, after twelve hours’ journey, we emerge from the forest, and 
run into the fine station of Toungoo, and our long pilgrimage is 
achieved. 
(To be continued.! 
GROWING MUSHROOMS—A CRITIQUE AND REPLY. 
1. In Mr. Wright’s book on “ Mushrooms for the Million ” it is 
stated that manure can be obtained at 33. 6d. the load. I do not find it 
so. A load contains 2 tons, the standard weight for a one-horse cart. 
The price obtained for manure is 23. Gd. a ton, 5s. a load. Add to this 
Is. 6d. for delivery, and it is found that Os. Gd. is nearer the mark 
than 3s. Gd. A very appreciable discrepancy, eh ? 
2. It cannot be supposed that 2 tons of manure could be loaded and 
unloaded, and a reasonable distance covered by the horse, in less than 
three hours, and the charge for horse and cart and man is Is. Gd. per hour. 
3. Mr. Wright no doubt speaks from, personal experience when he says 
that one load makes only Ij yard of ridge, but it does seem astonishing 
that over 2G cwts. can be squeezed into a space 2i feet at the base, and 
2i feet high, and tapering away to G inches broad at the top. 
•4. Another statement which seems misleading is that in which it is 
asserted that each yard represents 15s. worth of produce, for assuming 
that 15 lbs. of edible Mushrooms are grown to the yard, where may 
Is. per lb. be obtained wholesale for the greater part of the year 1 
5. It was particularly noticed here last year that Mushrooms were to 
be had for a long time for Id. lb. retail, and probably Gd. to 8d. is the 
average price all the year round retail. 
6. I noticed in last week’s c/re that Mushrooms 
were fetching Is. Gd. a punnet in Covent Garden. I presume the 
punnet contains 1 lb ? 
7. I should gladly appreciate any information you may be able and 
willing to afford me on the matter. Have you any Liverpool corre¬ 
spondent who grows Mushrooms on a large scale ? —Enquirer. 
[Mr. Wright is evidently the proper person to answer the above letter, 
and he does so as follows :—If “ Enquirer ” had read a little more care¬ 
fully he would have deprived himself of the opportunity for disnlaying 
his critical acumen, and the readers of the Journal of Horticulture 
would in consequence have been deprived of the little pleasant reading 
which his letter affords. 
Perhaps your correspondent does not possess the sixth and best 
edition of the work in question. If he does not he should obtain it, 
while if he has it he has either not read it or forgotten what it contains 
in reference to some of the subjects on which he writes ; however, he 
does not read with sufficient care what appears in previous editions, or 
he would not make the mistake of basing his strongest arguments on 
false premises, because if these happen to be knocked down his case 
vanishes. The points are all the same well worth stating, as possibly 
some of them, and some which appear in the work, may not be clear to 
all other readers; I am therefore really obliged to “Enquirer” for 
calling attention to his difficulties in comprehension. Now to the points. 
1. Price of Hanure. —The price named on page II of the work 
referred to is what has been actually paid for thousands of loads in 
London by Mr. Barter. The statement on the page quoted is his, and it 
is true. I have nowhere suggested that the price is universal. It would 
be very foolish to do so, because numbers of persons who can and do 
grow Mushrooms more or less extensively have plenty of manure with¬ 
out buying at all. In such cases the three-and-sixpenny rate would be, 
we will say, 300 per cent, too high. On the other hand, a friend of 
mine has to pay 7s. Gd. a load for manure, and he has been astonished 
and delighted by the profits he has derived in growing Mushrooms. 
But there is another aspect of the case. If my critic will turn to 
page 110 of the work he will find reference to the differing prices of 
manure ; and he will also find a very simple fact seated to the effect 
that the more manure costs for Mushroom beds the more it eventually 
realises for gardens when the beds have ceased bearing. There may be- 
exceptions, but that is the rule undoubtedly, and in some cases the 
manure has been sold for more than it cost to buy, so that the only 
outlay in growing the Mushrooms was for spawn and labour. A man 
who gives a high price for manure and sells it for a higher, getting a 
valuable crop of Mushrooms into the bargain, must, according to point 1, 
be greatly handicapped, Mr. “ Enquirer,” eh ? Query: Should you not 
like to be the unfortunate man ? 
2. Weight of Maimre. —“A load of manure for Mushroom beds 
weighs 2 tons,” so it is stated in the first paragraph, and continued ; 
therefore the question of weight being a distinct element in the general 
case, it is convenient to regard it as point 2. I have never advocated 
the purchase of manure by weight for Mushroom beds, and never shall, 
at least without seeing it, and giving advice thereon personally. Why ? 
Because, as stated on the page previously cited, “ manure that is sold by 
weight is as a rule too far advanced in decomposition for use in Mush¬ 
room beds.” Manure of the “ standard weight of 2 tons for a one-horse 
cart,” as stated above, is unsuitable for growing ilushrooms, and for that 
purpose alone I would not have it at any price and pay carriage, nor should 
I like to be the horse. They must work animals hard at Liverpool, and 
are not likely to grow Mushrooms profitably with such heavy material. 
3. Halting Mushroom Beds. —I am credited with speaking from 
“personal experience” when stating that “over 2G cwts. of manure 
can be squeezed into a space 21 feet at the base, 2.^ feet high, and 
tapering to G inches at the top.” My amusing critic is too generous. 
The statement was not founded on my “ personal experience,” but is 
a mental evolution ; not mine, please, but “ Enquirer’s” absolutely, and 
I would not like to deprive him of a vestige of the credit for the 
discovery. It is my turn to be generous now. If the gentleman who- 
writes so entertainingly can point to one line out of the 5000 in 
“ Mushrooms for the Million ” that contains either those words or their 
meaning I will undertake a journey to Liverpool, show the author of the 
statement what kind of manure to choose, “ squeeze ” a sample together 
in the right way, and generally do my best to teach him to grow 
bountiful crops of Mushrooms. I feel sure he would treat me well and 
that we should get on well together. What do you say to that, Mr. 
“ Enquirer,” eh ? 
I. Prices of Mushrooms. —In reference to this subject I am pleased 
to observe that the remarks on page 15 of this work only “seem” to- 
be misleading. The prices (wholesale) there named were actually 
obtained, every penny of them. There is no mistake about that, and 
two years afterwards an equal profit on culture, with lower prices, wa& 
obtained by a gardener on his first attempt at growing Mushrooms out¬ 
doors through following instructions, but he did not misread, and proved 
to demonstration (page 119 “ M. M.”) that I did not mislead. And,, 
further, as showing how careful I was not to do so “ Enquirer ” is asked 
to turn to page 122 of the book, and he will see that in consequence of 
the increased supply it is stated the average London wholesale prices had' 
fallen about 15 per cent, in six years, or 2| per cent, yearly. If they 
continue declining at the same rate for twenty more years, which is 
extremely improbable, a handsome profit will then be derived from 
full crops marketed at the right time ; this, however, comes in the 
next paragraph. 
5. Time of Proftahle Production. —The fact of “ Mushrooms being: 
obtainable at Id. a pound retail in markets ” at a certain long or short 
period of the year does not invalidate a single statement in the book. 
Tons are sold at less than that when there is a crowd of them in 
pastures. I have seen a cartload of field Mushrooms offered for 2s. Gd., 
and 23. Gd. a pound given for cultivated Mushrooms the same year. 
It is wholly a question of supply. But it is exactly when Mushrooms 
do not and cannot grow in pastures that their cultivation for profit is 
advocated, and at no other time, and attempts at producing them 
remuneratively during the hot summer months are also discouraged. 
The season of profitable production on outside ridges commences in 
November and ends in July, though a few are grown in October. The table 
on page IG (“ M. M.”) shows this, none for .\ugust and September, and that 
the best time is December to May, both months inclusive. More than 
that, however, appears bearing on this subject, for on page 105 the 
different times which beginners should or should not commence pre¬ 
parations are stated with precision—namely, “The end of July is the 
best time, the beginning of December a good time, October a difficult 
time, and March a bad time for commencing,” for reasons there given. 
The crops that follow on the instructions being carried out are not 
produced when field Mushrooms glut the markets, but when good prices 
are obtainable for good samples. Still if the “ average all the year 
round’' (and thus obviously including field Mushrooms) is as stated 
by “ Enquirer,” “ Gd. to 8d. a pound,” this is really confirmatory with 
the work in which the prices are given for good samples grown and sold 
during the period advised in it. If we take “ Enquirer’s ” lowest price 
(Id. retail), and take off 25 per cent, for salesmen’s commission and 
piarketing, and also take the lowest Go vent Garden price at the time he 
wrote, we have an average of lOjd., and this is in almost exact accord 
with what appears in the book on page 122. Thus we seem to agree 
after all, but without my good-humoured critic appearing to know it, 
