148 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
rooms appear in about forty days after the beds are 
spawned, and the beds continue bearing for forty or 
sixty days, but toward the end of that time the yield 
diminishes very rapidly. 
They are gathered once a day, usually about midnight, 
so that they may reach the Paris market early in the 
morning. In size the mushrooms range from three- 
fourths to one and five-eighths inches in diameter of top, 
and are pure white in color. The workmen always 
gather the mushrooms by plucking them out by the 
roots, and never by cutting them; the gatherers have 
two baskets, carried knapsack fashion on their back; 
one is to receive the mushrooms as they are picked, the 
other contains mold with which to fill in the little holes 
made by pulling the mushrooms out of the bed. In 
some caves one man gathers the mushrooms and leaves 
them in little piles on the bed as he goes along, a woman 
comes after him and places them in a basket, and a man 
follows her and fills up the holes with earth. Before 
bringing the mushrooms up out of the caves they are 
covered over with a cloth to avoid contact with the outer 
air, which is apt to turn them brown. They are then 
placed in baskets that contain twenty-three to twenty-five 
pounds and sent to market, where they are sold at auc¬ 
tion as they arrive. Or they may be sent to preserved- 
vegetable manufacturers, who contract for them at an 
all round price. 
Proper ventilation is regarded as being of great impor¬ 
tance, not only for the sake of the workmen, but also for 
the mushrooms, which will not thrive in an impure 
atmosphere. Ventilation is afforded by means of nar¬ 
row shafts surmounted by tall wooden chimneys whose 
upper ends are cut at an angle so that the beveled side 
faces north. In order to avoid sudden changes of tem¬ 
perature and strong draughts, fires, trap doors, and 
other means employed in assisting the ventilation of coal 
