To a great many people the art of 

 growing mushrooms is quite a 

 mystery, and even amongst gar- 

 deners of considerable experience and 

 skill their cultivation is attended with a 

 good deal of guess work, because they 

 lack the knowledge of two or three 

 essential points, which, if attended to 

 at the outset, the after crop of this de- 

 licious esculent can be looked forward 

 to with absolute certainty. Everyone 

 likes mushrooms, and there is no rea- 

 son why anyone who can procure the 

 manure and has a place, either in a shed 

 or out-building or a cellar, may not have 

 a bed producing plenty of mushrooms 

 the year around, excepting June or July 

 ^and even in these hot months they 

 can be grown if kept covered up from 

 the flies. 



Mushrooms will grow anywhere when 

 given the proper materials, and dark, 

 dry cellars not being used for anything 

 else are ideal places, spaces under ve- 

 randahs, or the prepared manure may 

 be packed in boxes any size, so long as 

 they are deep enough to hold eight or 

 nine inches of manure. Old bureau 

 drawers serve capitally for this purpose 

 — in fact, there is no limit to their cul- 

 tivation in places that may be conven- 

 ient or that ingenuity can suggest. 



To have certain success, procure if 

 possible the daily manure and sweep- 

 ings from a stable, whatever quantities 

 possible, forking out the long straw, 

 if any, and add a third of good gar- 

 den soil to the manure, mixing it thor- 

 oughly, turning daily to prevent it heat- 

 ing too much, adding to the pile fresh 

 manure and soil as you procure them 

 till you have sufficient to make a bed 

 four or five feet in width as long as you 

 have space for, and when packed down 

 to be not less than eight inches in depth. 



After the first rank heat has escaped, 

 make the bed by placing the manure in 

 layers, pounding it firmly. Pound it as 

 you would pound the soil in setting 

 posts ; the more compact your bed is, 

 the longer it retains the heat, and the 

 spawn travels quicker through it. 



In locating your bed, do not put it 

 on a cold floor or where any water would 

 be apt to raise and be absorbed by the 

 bed ; in such a possibility, raise your 

 bed up four or five inches, and if made 

 against a damp, cold wall, run some 

 Doards between. 



When your bed is made put a ther- 

 mometer in it and observe the tempera- 

 ture, which will rise up to a greater or 

 lesser degree ; but when you notice it 

 going down and about ninety degrees, 

 place your spawn in it by making holes 

 four inches deep, fifteen inches apart, 



•Extract from an address read at a meeting of 

 the Toronto Horticultural Society. 



Mushroom Culture^ 



J. McPherson Ross, Toronto 



and place the broken spawn in small 

 pieces in the holes, c(>\ering the same. 



A particular point in after-success is 

 to wait after spawning for a week or 

 ten days before you put the top cover- 

 ing of soil. Many growers are so im- 

 patient that they put the soil on too 

 soon. The heating or fermentation go- 

 ing on in the new bed causes moisture 

 or hot steam, and this must be allowed 

 to escape, so that if the soil was put on 

 before this occurred it would be retained 

 in the bed and kill the spawn. This is 

 the actual cause for the failure in nine 

 out of ten cases of attempts to grow 

 mushrooms, and too much stress cannot 

 be laid on these two points in growing 

 them : The first, being careful not to 

 spawn the bed till the heat is receding 

 and is about ninety degrees or eighty- 

 five degrees, and the second, not to 

 cover with the top two inches of soil 

 till eight or nine days have passed after 

 spawning. When putting on the top 

 two inches of soil, pat it down firmly 

 and smoothly and then place a layer 

 of straw over your bed ; though not ac- 

 tually necessary, it aids to keep the 

 soil surface moist and prevents the air 

 drying up the bed too quickly, and 

 keeps a still temperature. The temper- 

 ature to grow mushrooms should be 

 fifty-eight and one-half degrees, and 

 should not vary, but anywhere between 

 fifty to sixty degrees will answer. I 

 have succeeded in varying temperatures, 

 but that is the proper — fifty-eight and 

 one-half degrees — and that is why un- 

 derground tunnels, sewers or caves are 

 utilized, because the temperature can 

 be kept so even. 



Following out the foregoing instruc- 

 tions, you should have plenty of mush- 

 rooms. Be careful not to get the ma- 

 nure wet when preparing it, as this de- 

 lays and hinders your bed ; in fact, it is 

 absolutely necessary to save it and pre- 

 pare in some dry place. There is suffi- 

 cient moisture in the manure itself dur- 

 ing the process of heating, but if con- 

 ditions occur in too dry a place and 

 your bed needs water, warm it well be- 

 fore applying, say about loo degrees, 

 an occasional sprinkling will keep it 

 right. When preparing material for 

 your bed, be careful to see there is no 

 old iron, such as pieces of hoop iron, or 

 nails. It is stated as a curious fact that 

 iron will prevent any mushrooms. It 

 is recorded that among rival mushroom 

 growers in France care is taken of the 

 beds to prevent any enemy from stick- 

 ing nails into it, as this meant failure. 



In about six weeks or two months, if 

 the temperature keeps right, mushrooms 

 should appear, and when gathering give 

 the mushroom a .slight twist so as not 

 to disturb the little ones, and be care- 



166 



ful to fill up with good soil any holes 

 made in the bed by removing. Never 

 cut them off with a knife, as the stump 

 remaining will decay and infect the sur- 

 rounding growth. 



After a bed has exhausted it.self, 

 which it should in about three weeks, 

 a couple of inches of good soil applied 

 on the top will renew the crop for a 

 .short while. I have found it efficacious 

 to occasionally water it with liquid ma- 

 nure, which stimulates and increa.ses the 

 size of the mushrooms. When com- 

 pletely exhausted, remove the old ma- 

 terial, which is just right for digging 

 in flower beds or for bulb cultivation. 



A good plan to have successive crops 

 of mushrooms is to keep adding to your 

 Ijed fresh manure treated as directed, 

 removing the old portion as it throws 

 off the crop. Mushrooms can be grown 

 anywhere on shelves built for them in 

 the cellar, making one above another, 

 or you can have a bed in a barrel by 

 filling the barrel, spawning it — having 

 regard to the temperature— and then 

 cutting holes in the sides of the barrel 

 at various places, through which open- 

 ings the mushrooms will appear. To 

 sum up, the whole art of mushroom cul- 

 tivation lies in observing these rules : 



1. Get your manure fresh and keep 

 from wet. 



2. Turn daily and mix a third of 

 good soil with it. 



3. Make your bed, when pounded 

 thoroughly firm, to be about eight 

 inches in depth ; any deeper would make 

 it heat too much, and any thinner or 

 shallower would not be enough. 



4. Spawn it when the heat is reced- 

 ing from ninety degrees to eightyJfive 

 degrees, never more, as the heat would 

 kill the spawn. 



5. Wait ten days after bed is spawn- 

 ed before you put on top layer of soil, so 

 as to allow excess heat and moisture to 

 escape. 



6. Do not water unless you have to 

 and have it at blood heat. 



7. Have the temperature near sixty 

 degrees, no more. 



As it takes six weeks to two months 

 for the crop to grow, you can make the 

 beds any time, so long as you avoid it 

 cropping when flies abound. I would 

 not advise making any beds in Mav. It 

 is not necessary to grow mushrooms in 

 dark places, but they will grow there as 

 well as in the light. 



The average vegetable garden near 

 Toronto is from five to ten acres. Nearly 

 all growers have one or more green- 

 houses, which are used in the winter for 

 forcing lettuces, radishes, rhubarb, etc., 

 and to get plants well started ready for 

 spring work. 



