e Sheriffs'
Court for compensation by the Metropolitan Railway Company for
premises and business of a nurseryman at Kensington. The Railway had
taken possession of a mushroom-ground, and the claim for compensation
was L716. It was stated in evidence that the profits on mushrooms
amounted to 100 or 150 per cent. One witness said if L50 were
expended, in twelve months, or perhaps in six months, the sum
realized would be L200.

Immense quantities of mushrooms are produced in Paris, as is well
known, in caves, and interesting accounts have been written of visits
to these subterranean mushroom-vaults of the gay city. In one of these
caves, at Montrouge, the proprietor gathers largely every day,
occasionally sending more than 400 pounds weight per day to market,
the average being about 300 pounds. There are six or seven miles' run
of mushroom-beds in this cave, and the owner is only one of a large
class who devote themselves to the culture of mushrooms. Large
quantities of preserved mushrooms are exported, one house sending to
England not less than 14,000 boxes in a year. Another cave near
Frepillon was in full force in 1867, sending as many as 3,000 pounds
of mushrooms to the Parisian markets daily. In 1867, M. Renaudot had
over twenty-one miles of mushroom-beds in one great cave at Mery, and
in 1869 there were sixteen miles of beds in a cave at Frepillon. The
temperature of these caves is so equal that the cultivation of the
mushroom is possible at all seasons of the year, but the best crops
are gathered in the winter.

Mr. Robinson gives an excellent account, not only of the subterranean,
but also of the open-air culture of mushrooms about Paris. The
open-air culture is never pursued in Paris during the summer, and
rarely so in this country.[D] What might be termed the domestic
cultivation of mushrooms is easy, that is, the growth by inexperienced
persons, for family consumption, of a bed of mushrooms in cellars,
wood-houses, old tubs, boxes, or other unconsidered places. Even in
towns and cities it is not impracticable, as horse-dung can always be
obtained from mews and stables. Certainly fungi are never so
harmless, or seldom so delicious, as when collected from the bed, and
cooked at once, before the slightest chemical change or deterioration
could possibly take place.

Mr. Cuthill's advice may be repeated here. He says:--"I must not
forget to remind the cottager that it would be a shilling or two a
week saved to h