A DESCENT INTO A PARISIAN MUSHROOM CAVE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2469, 20 November 1868, Page 3

A DESCENT INTO A PARISIAN MUSHROOM CAVE.

(From the Gardeners' Chronicle.) It is pretty generally known that mushrooms are grown in great quantity under Paris and its environs, but it is somewhat difficult to gain access to those carrirres, and therefore a few words descriptive of one of them may not be unacceptable. The locality is that of Montrouge, just outside Paris. The Burface of the ground is cropped with wheat; here and there are heaps of white large cut stones ready to be transported to the buildings of Paris, and which have recently been brought to the surface through the coalpit like openings. There is nothing like a " quarry," as we understand it, to be seen about, but the stone is extracted as we extract coal, and with no interference whatever with the surface of the ground, We find a " champignoniste " after some trouble, and he accompanies us across some fields to the mouth of his subterranean garden, if we may so call it. It is a circular opening, half of it being covered with planks, and the head of a pole with sticks thrust through it appearing a couple of feet above the surface, its base resting in the darkness seventy feet below. We descend by this shaky pole with the sticks thrust through it, and soon reach the bottom of the shaft, from which little passages radiate, A few small lamps fixed at the ends of pointed sticks are placed below, and with one of these we follow our guide. Our passage is narrow, but roomy enough to stand erect, and immediately on entering it, mushroom culture begins. On each side of the pathway there is a small bed of moist halfdecomposed stable manure, not covered with earth—they are beds which have been made quite recently, and have not yet been spawned. Presently we arrive at beds in which the spawn has been placed, and is " taking " freely. The spawn in this cave is introduced to the little beds by means of flakes taken from an old bed, or, still better, from a heap of stable manure iu which it occurs "naturally." Such spawn our guide preferred, and called it virgin spawn, and considered it many times more valuable than that taken from old beds. Of spawn in bricks, as in England, there is none. Our champignoniste pointed with pride to the way in which the flakes of spawn had begun to spread their influence through the little beds, and passed on, sometimes stooping very low, and cautioning us against the pointed stones in the roof, to where the beds were in a more advanced state. Here we saw, and with much pleasure, little smooth, pretty-coloured ridgesrunning against all the sides of the passage, and wherever the rocky subway became as wide as a small bedroom, two or three little beds were placed parallel to each other. These beds were young, and dotted over on their sides with mushrooms no bigger than sweefr-pea seedi, but regularly dotted thus, and affording an excellent prospect of a crop. Be it observed that the little beds contain a much smaller body of stuff than is ever the case in our gardens—2o inches high, and about the same width at base being about the maximum, and of course these against the sides of the passages have not so much matter as those shaped like little potato pits, and placed in the more open spaces. The soil with which they are covered to the depth of about an inch is nearly white—it is simply sifted from the rubbish of the stone cutting above, and the use of this gives to the recently-made bed tie appearance of being covered with whitish putty. Although we are from 70 to 80 feet below the surface of the ground, everything looks very neat—in fact, very much more so than could have been expected, not a particle of litter or matter out of place being met with the whole time. Some length of bed is made every day in the year, and, as they naturally finish one gallery or series of galleries at a time, the beds in each have a like character. As we proceed to these in full bearing, creeping up aud down narrow passages, winding always between the two little narrow beds that line the passages, and seeing now and then wider nooks at the side filled with two or three little beds, even if the space be but a few feet long, daylight is again seeu, this time coming through another welllike shaft, formerly used for getting up the stone, but now for throwingdownthe requisite materials into the cave. At the bottom lies a large heap of the white earth before alluded to, and a barrel of water—for gentle waterings are required in the quiet, cool, mighty stillness of these caves, as well as In mushroom-houses on the upper crußt. Again we plunge into a passage dark as ink, and are between two lines of little beds in full bearing, the beautiful white button-like mushrooms appearing everywhere in profusion along the sides of the diminutive beds, something like the drills which farmers make for green crops. As the proprietor goes along he removes sundry bunches that are iu perfeetiou, and leaves them on the spot, so that they may be gathered with the collection for to-morrow's market. He gathers largely every day, occasionally sending more than 400 lb. weight per day, the average being about 300 lb. A moment more and we are in an open space, a sort of chamber say 20 feet by 12 feet; and here the little beds are arranged in parallel lines, a passage of not more than four inches separating them, and the sides of the beds literally blistered over with mushrooms. There is one exception ; on half of the bed and for about 10 feet long the little mushrooms have appeared and are appeariug, but they never get so laree as the pea stage, and then shrivel away, "bewitched" as it were. At least, such was the inference to be drawn from the cultivator's expressions about it. He gravely attributed it to 'a ridiculously superstitious cause, which is better not mentioned here. Generally the mushrooms grow in bunches, and so equally

sized that it is often desirable to gather the whole cropatthe sametime. The sidesof one bod here had been almost stripped by the taking away of such bunches, and it is worthy of note that they are not only taken out root and all when being gathered, but the very spot in which they grew is scuapcd out a little, so as to get rid of every trace of the old bunch, and then the space is covered with a little earth from the bottom of the heap. It is the habit to do this in every ease, and when our guide leaves a small hole from which he lias pulled even a solitary mushroom, he fills it with some of the white earth from the base, no doubt intending to gather other mushrooms from the same spot ere many weeks pass. The mushrooms look very white and pretty, and are apparently of prime quality. The absence of all littery coverings, dust, &c., and the daily gatherings secure them in what we may term perfect condition, I visited this cave on the fith day of July, and doubt very much if at that season a more remarkable crop of mushrooms could bo anywhere found than was here presented in this subterranean chamber—a mere speck in the space here devoted to mushroom culture by one individual. When I state that he has 10,000 metres (yards) run of mushroom beds in the ramifications of this cave, and yet is but one of a large class who devote themselves to mushroom culture about here, your readers will have some opportunity of judging of the extent to which mushroom culture is carried out about Paris, not only for its own vast wants in this way, but also for other countries, for they are successfully preserved and sent in quantity to England and other countries,