poisonous or not?"

"I do not think anything I said justified such an inference," said
Mrs. Gradinger in the same solemn drawl; "but I may remark that the
children are taught from illustrated manuals accurately drawn and
coloured. Well, to come back to the fungi, I took the trouble to
measure the plot on which they were growing, and found it just ten
yards square. The average weight of edible fungus per square yard
was just an ounce, or a hundred and twelve pounds per acre. Now,
there must be at least twenty millions of acres in the United
Kingdom capable of producing these fungi without causing the
smallest damage to any other crop, wherefore it seems that, owing
to our lack of instruction, we are wasting some million tons of
good food per annum; and I may remark that this calculation pre-
supposes, that each fungus springs only once in the season; but I
have reason to believe that certain varieties would give five or
six gatherings between May and October, so the weight produced
would be enormously greater than the quantity I have named."

Here Mrs. Gradinger paused to finish her coffee, which was getting
cold, and before she could resume, Sir John had taken up the
parole. "I think the smaller weight will suffice for the present,
until the taste for strange fungi has developed, or the pressure of
population increased. And before stimulating a vastly increased
supply, it will be necessary to extirpate the belief that all
fungi, except the familiar mushroom, are poisonous, and perhaps to
appoint an army of inspectors to see that only the right sort are
brought to market."

"Yes, and that will give pleasant and congenial employment to those