MUSHROOM GROWING. 



43 



Table IX.— Yields of experimental mushroom beds in a north basement room. 



190^— Coutinned. 



1^ 



34 



35 

 36 



38 

 39 



40 



41 

 42 



43 

 44 

 45 

 46 



47 



4s 



Bedding material and fertilizer. 



Spawn used. 



Stable manure, 

 -do. 



Stable manure, lime dressing 



Stable manure, ammonium molyb- 

 date, i ounce. 



Stable manure, ZnNO;;, 1 gram 



Stable manure _ 



do __ 



English commercial (ordered as 



fresh*. 

 Spawn from bed in full beai'ing _ . . 

 Bohemia, U. S. Department of 



Agriculture. 

 do .-. 



CO . 



cs a 



(56 



68 



'6^ 



.do. 



.do. 

 .do. 



.do. 



.do 



.do. 



Stable manure and sawdust . 



Stable manure 

 ...do 



Ayarldis amygdaliruis 



Bohemia, U. S. Department of 



Agriculture. 

 English commercial (New York) . 

 Bohemia, U. S. Department of 



Agriculture. 



Spawn from old bearing bed _ 



Pleurufus ostreatus 



English commercial (Philadelphia) 

 Bohemia, U. S. Department of 



Agriculture. 



Var.y, American commercial 



Alaska, American commercial 



64 



64 



48 

 64 



84 



12 

 8 



(?) 

 (?) 



4 

 33 





 

 

 



60 

 22 



•a ^ 



O (S 



a 33 



From the experiments given in the foregoing table further proof 

 is furnished of the fact that stable manure alone, when of good 

 quality, is sufficient for the growth of mushrooms. The addition 

 of nutrient salts as fertilizers has not, on an average, given any 

 marked increase in yield, but rather the contrary. It is hardly 

 possible that the quantity of salts used on the beds was too little to 

 make the effect felt. On the other hand, it was not sufficient to be 

 injurious. It is evident from the experiment in bed No. 29, for in- 

 stance, that the addition of 4 ounces of kainit could not have been 

 injurious. In some instances the results obtained by the use of fer- 

 tilizers Avere poorer than where the manure alone Avas used. This, 

 however, the writer believes to be due largely to differences in the 

 spawn used, or the differences in condition owing to the location of 

 the bed, for subsequent experiments with some of the salts Avhich 

 seemed to be either injurious or beneficial have not wholly confirmed 

 these results. It is to be noted, however, from the experiment in bed 

 Xo. (') of this series and also from bed \o. 30. in Table VIII, that the 

 beds treated with cotton-seed meal have invariably yielded somewhat 

 above the average. These beds do not come into bearing quite so raj)- 

 idlv as those in which manure alone is used. It is thought that tliis is 

 due to the fact that bacterial action is at the beginning more rapid in 

 beds containing cotton-s(>ed meal, and thai, consexiuently, when tliis 

 Avave of l)acterial growth lias ])assiMl the nutrition of the s|)a\vn is 

 favorably affected. Experiments had ah-eady indicated that inaiiui-e 



