MUSHROOM SEASON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20890, 4 June 1931, Page 10

MUSHROOM SEASON.

SUPPLIES WELL MAINTAINED. EXCEPTIONALLY LOW PRICES. Mushrooms have been exceptionally plentiful this year and good supplies aro still obtainable in a number of city and suburban shops. Tho season proper usually commences in March and terminates about the middle of May, but it is thought probable that the current season may continue for a week or two yet. A large proportion of the mushrooms sent to tho Auckland City Markets has come from the Marton and Feilding districts, although quantities of local grf.wn and Waikato mushrooms have also been disposed of. Prices this year have been maintained at a very low level, and, even though the season is approaching its close good quality mushrooms are now selling at from Is to Is 6d a lb. At the end of February the retail price was 3s 6d a lb., but in April and early May, when the season was at its height, prices dropped to 3d and 4d a lb. This is a decided contrast to the 1930 season, when mushrooms were a very expensive delicacy owing to unfavourable early autumn weather having checked tho growth both locally and in the Waikato.

The abnormally large crop of mushrooms this year may be accounted for by the fact that tho first autumn rains were comparatively light and did not cool the earth to the same extent as last year. Another reason given for the increased supplies at tho markets is that many farmers, affected by tho present, hard times, have been collecting the mushrooms growing on their land for sale in the city. It is probable that the crop in the Waikato last year was heavier than was supposed, but tho farmers did not trouble to collect it.