88 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
makes some 10,000 bushels, equal to 160,000 pounds, of 
brick spawn for sale. The amount of spawn made in a 
year by this one manufacturer is about three times as 
much as the total annual importation of mushroom 
spawn of all kinds into this country. And he is only 
one maker among several. This fact alone must con¬ 
vince us that mushroom-growing is carried on to a vastly 
greater extent in European countries than it is here, 
where we have as good facilities as they have, and an 
immensely better market. 
The manner of making the spawn differs a little with 
the different manufacturers, and no one can become pro¬ 
ficient in it without practical knowledge. I asked Mr. 
Barter if he thought spawn could be made profitably in 
this country, paying, as we do, $1.50 a day for laborers, 
and without any certainty of the same men staying with 
us permanently. He writes me: “Uncertain labor 
would be of no use. Of course the wages you pay would 
not affect it much, as I pay nearly as much as that for 
my leading men. But to begin with, you must have a 
man that has had some experience.” 
About the simplest and best way of making brick 
spawn that I find described is the following from The 
Gardeners’ Assistant . I may here state that Robert 
Thompson, the author of this work, was for many years 
the superintendent of the Royal Horticultural Society’s 
gardens at Chiswick, near London, and, in his day, was 
regarded as without a peer in practical horticulture, and 
lived in the midst of the market gardens of London and 
the principal mushroom-growing district. 
“Fresh horse droppings, cow dung, and a little loam 
mixed and beaten up with as much stable drainings as 
may be necessary to reduce the whole to the consistence 
of mortar. It may then be spread on the floor of an 
open shed, and when somewhat firm it may be cut into 
cakes of six inches square. These should be placed on 
