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Abstract: Although a considerable amount of research has been carried out on the temperature requirements of the mushroom by Flegg and Gandy (1962), and by many other workers, a vast amount of thought has gone into providing heated and humidified air, distributed correctly throughout the mushroom house during the cooler months, little work has been done on the provision of cooled air, dehumidified or humidified where necessary, during the warmer months. In Western Europe, complete air conditioning is in many cases, considered to be an expensive luxury. On the other hand, 'mobile coolers' which can be moved from house to house, are considered of great value and a number of growers in Great Britain now have these, though few have yet acquired cooling expertise. Flegg (1970) recently emphasized how vital temperature control was to precisioned growing, not only because of the effect of temperature upon the rate of growth, but also because of the effect of temperature upon other environmental factors such as humidity, the rates of diffusion of carbon dioxide, oxygen and other gases between air, casing and compost. One of the first suggestions for mobile cooling came from Figgis (1957) but it was not until 1964 when English growers suffered over 50% reductions in yield from a long series of crops affected by both high temperature and high humidity, that interest was again stimulated.
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