CHAPTER XX. 
GROWING MUSHROOMS IN RIDGES OUT OR DOORS 
AROUND LONDON. 
In the preface to Kitchen and Market Gardening 
(London) is the following : 
“Mr. W. Falconer and Mr. C. W. Shaw made, in 
connection with the London Garden , what we believe 
to be the first attempt at long and systematic observa¬ 
tion of the best culture as it is in London market gar¬ 
dens.” This is mentioned to indicate that the writer 
speaks on this subject from experience. And although 
it is now seventeen years since I became disconnected with 
the London market gardens, by revisiting them a few 
years ago, and by correspondence and the horticultural 
press, I have endeavored to keep informed of all changes 
of methods and improvements in culture as practiced 
there. At that time Steele, Bagley, Broadbent, Dancer, 
Pocock and Myatt were among the largest and best gar¬ 
deners around London, and since then several of these 
grand old gentlemen have passed away and their fields 
have been cut up and built upon. At that time mush¬ 
rooms were one of the general crops, as were snap beans 
or cauliflower, and in their season were planted as a 
matter of course. To-day they have become a specialty, 
and some gardeners devote their whole energy to mush¬ 
room-growing alone, and make from $2000 to $5000 a 
year clear profit from one acre of mushrooms, and that, 
too, from ridges in the open field ! There is no other 
field crop that yields such a large profit. There they 
get twenty-four to forty-eight cents a pound for their 
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