re foot. These sold at an average of a little over 50 cents per
pound. A third house, with 19,000 square feet of beds, produced 2,800
pounds, or one and one-half pounds to the square foot. This house
yielded a net profit of one thousand dollars. This, however, can be
quoted only as showing the possibilities of careful culture by
experienced growers under very favorable circumstances. Amateurs could
scarcely expect such good results. Three-fourths of a pound to the
square foot would probably come nearer the average. A Philadelphia
grower gives the average price secured from fifty shipments of mushrooms
in one season at 54 cents per pound. New York dealers report higher
rates than this. A Washington florist who utilizes the lower shelves of
his propagating houses for the purpose of mushroom growing informed me
that during two seasons he received 60 cents per pound wholesale,
shipping to New York, and that he sold one thousand dollars worth in one
season. Mr. Denton, a market gardener of Long Island, who cultivates in
houses built for the purpose, markets from 1,700 to 2,500 pounds per
year.

Thus far the market is in the hands of a comparatively few dealers in
the neighborhood of large cities, but there is certainly no good reason
why the growing of mushrooms should not be more generally undertaken by
the farming community. Certainly no one has better facilities than are
at the command of the enterprising American farmer. On most farms the
conditions are favorable or could easily be made so for mushroom
culture, on a moderate scale, at least. Generally there are disused
sheds, old barns, etc., which with a small outlay could be transformed
into mushroom houses, and where timber is plentiful the cost of building
a small mushroom house would be repaid by the profits accruing from the
business.

In the culture of mushrooms there are open, to the enterprising with
small capital, four sources of profit: first, the sale of the fresh
mushrooms; second, the manufacture of mushroom catsup; third, the
canning of the small button mushroom for exportation; and, fourth, the
manufacture of spawn.

It is well in this, as in all new industries, to begin in a small way,
and if success is attained it is easy to extend operations on a larger
scale. My advice to amateurs is to begin with one or two beds in a
well-drained cellar or shed where good ventilation and even temperature
can be secured at moderate cost. In the underground cellar e