i 
174 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1899. 
Some thousands of persons are engaged exclusively in their production, 
which amounts annually to 10,000,000 kilogrammes (about 1,450 tons), valued 
at 12,000,000 francs (£480,000). 
The champignon only develops itself on horse manure, and that is a 
manure of special quality which has been subjected to a particular system of 
fermentation, being piled up at the entrance to the champignon beds in long 
mounds about 5 feet in height. If the mounds were lower, the mass would not 
heat sufficiently ; if they were higher, it would heat too violently. When the 
manure has been three weeks in the mounds, it is ready for the production of 
the fungus. 
What essential change has been produced during this fermenting period ? 
The labours of several scientists, and particularly of Dr. Repin, of the Pasteur 
Institute, have resulted in establishing the fact that the straw in the manure 
has undergone a chemical oxidation. The cellulose has been transformed into 
an insoluble substance, and it is this insoluble substance which furnishes the 
champignon with the element necessary for its nutrition and development. 
_In fact, we see that the “spawn” is produced in the same manner as for mush- 
rooms. 
The manure having been thus prepared, it is lowered into the abandoned 
quarry or mine, which is chosen as the site of a “ champignonniére,” as the 
French term it, ‘These are of several kinds. In some the galleries are narrow, 
and so low that they can only be traversed on “all fours.’ These galleries or 
tunnels (“drives,’”’ we should call them here) are reached by a shaft, which is 
descended by means of a “parrot ladder’”’—that is, a single piece of timber 
pierced with holes, through which short pieces of wood are passed, protruding 
on both sides. Other quarries and their galleries are so immense that there 
are several workings one below the other, and each reached by a winze. Now, 
in these galleries many operations are carried out before the precious vegetable 
is raised to the light of day. 
First comes the laying down of the manure in regular lines, about 16 
inches wide at the base, and the same in height. These dimensions have been 
fixed by experience, and are such as to permit of the mass fermenting again in 
a slight degree, and to reach, without passing a temperature of 18 to 20 degrees 
Cent. (about 64 degrees to 68 degrees Fahr.), which is the requisite temperature 
for the proper development of the champignon. 
Immediately after the arrangement of the manure in these lines, the 
‘spawn’ is sown; this is called the “lardage.” Small pieces of prepared dry 
manure called ‘sets’? are put into the rows of manure. These are charged 
with the champignon “spawn.” This spawn, from which the champignon is to 
eventually be produced, has the appearance of very fine white threads, which, 
when set in the manure, spread themselves in all directions through it. The 
spawn is rather expensive to purchase. A basket of twenty “sets” costs 3} 
francs (2s. 11d.), and it takes five “sets” per yard to properly sow the hillocks. 
The search for the virgin spawn is a separate industry. It is found in old 
abandoned manure heaps, and in old melon beds, where it is spontaneously 
produced: Scientists have, however, discovered a method, hitherto vainly 
patie of obtaining a virgin spawn direct from the spores of the fungus 
itself. 
Now come the final operations. The surface of the hillocks is worked 
about by hand to give it a good tilth; then comes what is locally known as the 
“goptage.” This operation consists in covering the surface of the beds with 
sand spread to a uniform depth of about 43-inch. The action of the sand is 
purely physical, and provides no nourishment to the fungus. 
Three or four weeks after the “ goptage”’ the champignons are at maturity 
nothing remains but to gather them. 
