The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-02-04
A MUSHROOM HOUSE.

vate gardens, but only few succeeded
in raising mushrooms. Lack of atten-
ion. to temperature, improper manage
lnent of the beds, the use of inferior
spawn and other mistakes were fatal.
Then some market gardeners in Long
Island, Staten Island, Manhattan Island
and other points adjacent to New York,
as well as near Boston, Philadelphia and
Washington, began following out caves
and building dark places to raise the
fungus.
A few succeeded, and the rest, becom-
ing disheartened by constant failure,
abandoned the project. The truth is
they had not the knowledge nor the pa
tience. They could easily have imported
expert mushroom gardeners from
France, instead of learning from the i'm
perfect and very meagre literature, pic
torial and otherwise, belonging to the
subject. I may add here that all tho
drawings to be found in the American
Encyclopedia and the other three or
four publications Oh the subject are to be
traced back to stupid, inadequate and
inaccurate work printed about forty
years ago.
From that time on artificial mushroom
raising has been carried on almost owe!
the entire Union with varying success.
The clumsy, thriftless and i'll informed
have gone out of the business, but tina
careful and industrious ones have made
plenty of money.
Said another restaurant man to me on
this point: "Why, some of them are
fairly coming cash out of this thing, and
no wonder. They know that the lnferi-
ority of imported mushrooms leads US to
pay exorbitapt prices for all that We can
oct taken fresh from the beds. We have
actually to pay from $l.4O to $3.50 a
pound for these home grown mushrooms
Just rs soon MS the natural season closes" /"
;'Do you get artiicially grown mush.
rooms from American gardeners all 'enH
year r~1nd except in August and Sep
tcmtr12" I asked another expert III
mushrooms who keeps large restaurant
in liberty street.
"No. That is the stupid and aston
ishinc part of it. 1t almost forces one
to the belief that there is no brains en-
ployed in the domestic business. For all
their huge profits our mushroom men are
timid Do you know that just as soon
Is summer comes they close up their cell
lars, caves, dark houses and mushroom
gardens and do not start them going
again till October. They do this year
after year in spite of the short natural
crop of the six years just past. They
ought to run them at their fullest capac-
ity the year round, and if they have an
oversupplyi in August and September they
esuld can them, as they do in FranrA'
From various other competent sourc@
confirmation was obtained of these state'
ments. The facts generally, as I gather
them from all reliable sources, arc:
There are, round about New York, Bos-
ton. Philadelphia, Chicago and all the
large cities, several marke! gardeners en-
gagged in the artificial production. There
is general understanding among them
to shut dcwu at a certain season, but
when they arc running they get close
upon $1.5O n pound for all they pro
duce. A more plentiful supply would
bring down prices, and thus they stand
together to maintain what is practically
q monopoly.
Bat look at the magnitude of an in
dustry of this kind if properly devel-
opel. If you allowed but a pound OF
mushrooms day to every fifty or sixty
persons, and that is so low an estimate as
to be almost ridiculous, it would repre-
sent production of 1000, 600 day, OF
365, 900, 900 pounds in year, which at
fifty cents pound, would mean $751;
500, 900 paid to the mushroom garden
crs in a year. Who will say, then, this
is an industry that the people should no.
hear about and that should remain In the
hands of few covetous personsf -
That all who read this and who are
interested in the subject may have clesT
views about the methods of raising. II
I've at some length the methods found
the best by experts:
In Paris thousands of persons are en-
ployed in the subterranean places. Here
they work the twenty-four hours through
at depth of from sixty to 160 feet, the
light being so regulated and subdued as