CULTIVATION OF THE MUSHROOM 



593 



The scope of this article precludes a description of the pure culture method of 

 making spawn. It is now used by the large commercial growers and has in 

 many sections entirely superseded the old English spawn and other forms of 

 wild spawn. As now manufactured it resembles much in appearance the old 

 English spawn (see Figure 501). Some remarkable results have been obtained 

 by the use of pure culture spawn. We illustrate a cluster of fifty mushrooms 

 on one root grown by Messrs. Miller & Rogers, of Mortonville, Pa., from "Lam- 

 bert's Pure Culture Spawn" produced by the American Spawn Company, of St. 

 Paul, Minn. (Figure 502). Several promising varieties have already been de- 

 veloped by the new method, and can now be reproduced at will. Figure 503 is a 

 good illustration of Agaricus villaticus, a fleshy species in good demand. Figure 

 504 shows a bed of mushrooms grown from pure culture spawn in a sand rock 

 cave, using the flat bed. 





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Figure 504. A Mushroom Cave, Showing One of the Test Beds of the American Spawn Co., St. Paul, Minn. 



