1873] MUSHROOM-FORCING. 51 



MUSHROOM-FORCIlSra. 



I DO not know whether it be correct to say that Mushrooms are forced 

 in winter ; they rather may be said to be grown, for the necessary con- 

 ditions to their culture are more easily given in winter than in the 

 heat of summer. Mushrooms are at all times in demand, especially in 

 winter, when they may be said to be forced. To grow Mushrooms well, 

 three things are necessary : first, a suitable place; second, a proper soil 

 or medium to feed their growth ; and third, good spawn. 



The Mushroom-house should be a place at once moist and of an 

 equable temperature, where there are no draughts whatever, and no dry- 

 ing influences from hot air or fire-heat, from walls or hot flues, which will 

 absorb the moisture of the house and cause drying currents of air. A 

 cellar under ground is a capital place for a Mushroom-house, because a 

 genial temperature of about 60° can be maintained without fire-heat 

 in all weathers. Mushroom-houses are, however, generally built against 

 the back of walls facing north, with shelves of more or less substantial 

 character in tiers, with which arrangement we find no fault. The 

 roof of the Mushroom-house, like that of the ice-house, would be better 

 thatched than slated; if not so, it should be lathed and plastered inside, 

 with plenty of space between the slates and plaster, to obviate extremes 

 of cold and heat from the outside acting on the slates and thence on 

 the atmosphere of the house. 



The shelves of the Mushroom-house are generally made of strong 

 slabs of wood, the bottom and sides close like a box ; sometimes of slate ; 

 and we have known a Mushroom-house with the shelves of brick arches 

 on cast-iron pillars, with the front of the shelves of cast-iron, than 

 which nothing could be more substantial and lasting. Mushroom-house 

 shelves made of any wood are extremely liable to decay, and conse- 

 quently are often wanting repairs. But still we prefer the wooden shelf, 

 and probably a very perishable form of one, but the one of all others 

 which we think the Mushroom-shelf ought to be. We should prefer 

 them made of open work, with narrow rails of oak or good deal, leaving 

 about 4 inches between each rail both in tho bottom and sides, or no 

 rails at all at the sides, but simply make the sides of turf when the 

 beds are being made, and all the better if the shelves did not touch 

 either the back or front walls of the house, but one broad tier of shelves 

 down the middle of the house ; if it be wide enough, two tiers of 

 shelves. We consider solid shelves an entire mistake in Mushroom- 

 growing, which we have proved to our own abundant satisfaction, as 

 Mushrooms will grow just as well out of the bottom and sides of the 

 bed as over the top surface. Indeed the French have long ago 

 recognised this fact in the preparation of their beds in the sub- 



