SfiFT. f, idm,] 



THE TROPICAI. AGRICULTURIST, 



365 



a small capital will suffice to begin with in tea- 

 planting, as if the yonug man is wortli anything he 

 will soon live off the proLluce of his laud, farm and 

 orchard, whilst waitiug two years for his tea buslies 

 to come into remunerative bearing. Two years is, 

 Mr. Green assured me, the age at which tea in Natal 

 commences to be remunerative ! 



Since writing the above 1 have, with two brokers, 

 tasted a small envelope sample of the Broken 

 Orange Pekoe I brouglit with me from the bulk from 

 which I have asked that a sample should be prepared 

 for you. Alas ! though crisp and to all ai)pearance 

 sound, it is musty, so, as this involves a further 

 visit to the Exhibition and another trial, I am afraid 

 there will be some delay in sending you out your 

 samples. 



Labour averages from 20 to 25 shillings per mensem 

 and the labourers are fed off the "mealies" (Indian- 

 corn) &c., pi'oduced on the estates. Some acquaintance 

 with the language and habits of the people has to be 

 acquired to start with, in order to arrange for the 

 constant changes which take place, and also to in- 

 gratiate oneself into their good opinion, which latter 

 once grtiued, is productive of faithful service. The 

 natives soon after the newcomer's arrival, bestow a 

 characteristic native name upon him, and this 

 name counts for much ; if it has any bearing upon 

 medicine, so much the better for his j)re.'itiye and 

 influence. The native women do not work at present. — 

 Peeipatetic Planter. 



MUSHEOOM CULTUEE. 



Is thus noticed in the proceedings of the Horti- 

 cultural Society of India : — 



Some fine mushrooms, exhibited by Mr. H.W. Newton, 

 for which a special prize was given at the Society's 

 annual show, attracted so much attention and enquiry, 

 that Mr. Newton was asked to favour the Society 

 with a few notes as to the culture he adopted, which 

 he very kindly responded to as follows: — 



" Directions taken from a short pamphlet on the 

 growth of mushrooms, published by an eminent English 

 Firm (whose mushroom spawn has been celebrated 

 for many years) modified to meet the requirements 

 of growth in lower Bengal. 



My method of raising mushrooms is a simple one. 

 I grow them in the open, but a dark cellar is prefer- 

 able. I make a bed 16 or 18 inches deep, which I 

 fill up with short horse-dung after exposing it to the 

 sun for two or three days to allow the moisture to 

 evaporate. The bed should be well beaten down to 

 retain the heat, and when the temperature is down 

 to 85 or 86, it is fit to spawn. The spawn bricks 

 should be broken to pieces about an inch or an iuch- 

 and-a-half in size, and placed in the dung at intervals 

 of say 3 or 4 inches. The bed should then be covered 

 over with 2 inches of fine sifted garden mould and 

 well beaten or trodden down. Generally the mushrooms 

 appear in about 6 weeks to 2 mouths from time of 

 spawning the bed. If the bed should become very dry, 

 it may be watered, but water should always be sparingly 

 applied. It should never be given in great abundance 

 atone time; still mushrooms like a moist fixed temper- 

 ature, which may be produced by occassionally damping 

 the walls, floors, &c." 



At the meeting, Babu Pratapa Chandra Ghosha 

 made some interesting remarks on the subject, which 

 he was requested to embody in a paper on the subject, 

 to be published with the Proceedings ; — 



Notes on Mushrooms. — The delicate appeai-ance of 

 some of the edible fungi has from time immemorial 

 tempted man to. use them as articles of food. As it 

 is always difficult to distinguish the poisonous from 

 the edible varieties, the Sastras have enjoined a 

 wholesale prohibition of the use of these ephemeral 

 esculents. Nevertheless the use of Mushrooms as an 

 article of food is as old as Manu, the Lawgiver. It 

 is still used extensively in the dry regions of Bengal, 

 and also in the valley of Kashmir. The varieties 

 known in Bengal are the following : — 



1. Phiidki-Uhhatu (the small and tho large); 2. 

 Puwal-Ohbatu J d. Kadau-Chhatu ; * 4, Durga-Cbhatu 



5. Urji-Ohhatu; 6. Kud-Kudi-Chhatu; * 7. Kat- 

 Ohhatu; * 8. GovarChhatu; 9. Indu-Chhatu ; 10. 

 Pachan-Chhatu ; * 11. Kondka-Chhatu ; 13. Gundura- 

 Chhatu. 



Of these, those which are marked with au asterisk, 

 i. e. No. 4, 7, 8 and 11, are considered unfit for food. 

 None of the above named 13 varieties of truffles and 

 mushrooms are cultivated in Bengal. Indeed, the 

 cultivation of these ephemeral vegetable growths is 

 unknown. Some, however, attempt to raise a few 

 poor specimens of the 2nd variety, Puwal-Ohhatu, by 

 allowing waste paddy straw to rot in a heap, and 

 depending on chance for the germination of these 

 fungi. It is not known to the cultivators of Lower 

 Bengal that these esculents may be reproduced by 

 their spawns. 



Of all these varieties Urji-Chhatu, is considered as 

 the most delicate in flavour. They are found generally 

 under ant-hills or dhipis as they are called. In the 

 Bankura and Birbhum districts, these are collected by 

 the low-caste-dwellers of the forest known as Buno, 

 and sold to the villagers in exchange for rice, tobacco 

 or salt. A kind of Pclao is made with these fungi, 

 and I must acknowlege that they are not at all inferior 

 to Pelao made with meat. In the Kashmir Valley 

 the Guchha is much used. This fungus has the closest 

 resemblance to the truffles of Europe. It is sold in 

 the Kashmir shops in a dry state, and the older the 

 article the greater is its value. The Kashmirians 

 seem to be aware of the fact that the objectionable 

 properties of fungi are minimised by keeping. Fungi 

 growing on cow-dung, and those with dark stems 

 are considered as poisonous. The idea of raising 

 truffles and mushrooms on beds of horse-dung or any 

 dung whatever is most repugnant to the feelings of 

 the people of this country. But it is otherwise 

 elsewhere. 



The " Dublin Gardner " for 1883 gives a latter of 

 Mr. Barter in which the advantages of mushroom 

 culture are fully set forth. A mu.shroom bed of less than 

 an acre in area is reported to have supported 4 

 families, vi::. the lessee of the ground and 3 familes 

 of workmen, each of whom received wages of £4 a 

 week. The rent for au acre of land being £12 per 

 year, the grower expecting upwards of 5 tons of the 

 esculent vegetable, which sells at the rate of 1 

 shilling per jpound. Reports are also given of the 

 result of sowing a bed 20 yards long by 2h feet wide 

 with mushroom spawn. In one gathering the yield 

 weighed 160 lb. Auother bed 35 yards long and 2^ 

 feet broad yielded at the first gathering, goo3 

 marketable mushrooms, 76 lb. in weight. In the 

 second gathering the yield attained its maximum of 

 300 lb. and in the 3rd gathering which was at au 

 interval of a week, the yield was 80 lb. It will thus 

 bee seen that in 3 weeks this small bed yielded 360 

 pounds of mushroom, or vegetables of the value of £18 

 sterling. The beds were in all these cases formed of 

 stable refuse evenly spread in a covered place, the 

 temperature of which was preserved at au uniform 

 standard. It is needless for me to note that the 

 cultivation of the edible fungi has proved to be a 

 very profitable and easy business. 



The prospects of gain as well as the utilising of 

 subterranean caves which are lost to the world except 

 for the entertainment of the curious, have induced 

 Mr. H. 0. Haney to draw the attention of the American 

 authorities to introduce the cultivation of mushrooms 

 in some of the galleries of the Mammoth cave. He 

 recommended for this purpose the avenue known as 

 " Auduleon's Avenue," which is nearly half-a-mile 

 long, and in which the temperature remains even, 

 almost throughout the j'ear ; this avenue, together with 

 that portion of the cave which was formerly resorted 

 to by consumptive patients but now abandoned, and 

 which is known us the great Bat-room, is pre-eminently 

 suited for the cultivation of mushrooms. The accumul- 

 ated guano of bats was considered to form a desirable 

 bed for the nourishment of the spawn. 



Thsi proposal was brought to the notice of the public 

 in 1SS2, and ever since, portion of the cave mentioned 

 above, has been yielding mushrooms by tons, Oultivatiou 

 uf mushrooms iu subterraneous caverns is not coufiued 



