Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. A list of amendments is at the end of the text. The Country Series OF FARM, GARDEN, AND RURAL BOOKS FOR GENERAL USE, PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF W. ROBINSON, F.L.S., _Founder of “The Garden,” “Farm and Home,” and “Gardening Illustrated;” Horticultural Editor of “The Field;” Author of “The Parks and Gardens of Paris,” “Alpine Flowers for English Gardens,” “The Wild Garden,” “Hardy Flowers,” &c._ MUSHROOM CULTURE ITS _EXTENSION AND IMPROVEMENT_ [Illustration: MOUTH OF MUSHROOM-CAVE NEAR PARIS] [Illustration: BOTTOM OF SHAFT OF MUSHROOM-CAVE] MUSHROOM CULTURE ITS _EXTENSION AND IMPROVEMENT_ BY W. ROBINSON, F.L.S. AUTHOR OF _“The Parks and Gardens of Paris,” “Alpine Flowers,” &c._ WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS NO. 9 LAFAYETTE PLACE LONDON, GLASGOW AND MANCHESTER PREFACE. MY reasons for writing this book are: First, that Mushroom Culture is but little practised in this country compared to the extent to which it ought to be, considering the abundance of the necessary materials in all parts of these islands, both in town and country, and the high estimation in which the Mushroom is held. I now refer to ordinary Mushroom Culture as practised in our best private gardens. I believe it possible and desirable to extend this, the only phase of the Culture that can be called popular, in a tenfold degree, and that every place in which a gardener and horses are kept should be abundantly supplied with Mushrooms throughout the greater part of the year. Secondly, that although Mushroom Culture as usually practised is perfectly well known to good cultivators, a simpler and fuller account of it than has yet appeared in any English book on the subject is desirable for the unpractised amateur and cultivator. Thirdly, that Mushroom Culture is at present confined to a too narrow groove; and a belief that the general gardening public should have a broad and clear idea of the several ways in which they may procure abundance of excellent Mushrooms with very trifling expense. Even many of the best private growers never think of it except as illustrated on their comparatively small beds in small houses. I believe that if the knowledge of how easily and in how many ways they may be grown, apart from the usual mode, were sufficiently spread, it would lead to the production of many times our present supply. Fourthly, a desire to introduce to this and other countries the system of Mushroom Culture on a very large scale carried on in caverns beneath the environs of Paris, which caverns I visited in 1868.