144 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



with lis tonight, and I think with a httle bit of coaxing he will go 

 forward and perhaps say something himself, and if you have any 

 questions to ask he will answer them if he can. 



TALK ON MUSHROOMS. 

 By Frederick A. Shaw of Winthrop. 



I will be very glad to answer any questions regarding these 

 mushrooms and about growing them. What I don't know 

 about growing mushrooms will make a very large volvmie ; what 

 little I do know I am willing to impart to anyone. The one or 

 two necessary things in growing mushrooms for profit is a warm 

 place like a cellar, absolutely free from any draft where the reg- 

 ular heat of 60 degrees can be maintainecl from autumn to 

 spring; mushrooms can be grown better in the winter when the 

 gardener has more time to attend to them than any other time 

 of the year. Perhaps this is not appropriate so much for the 

 fruit raiser as for the truck gardener because the dressing for 

 compost which is so essential for growing mushrooms can be 

 used afterward on the garden and has not deterioated in the 

 least in having raised the mushrooms. A" great many of you 

 have seed catalogues given you, giving formulas for the raising 

 of mushrooms, but my experience is that if you follow the for- 

 mula to the letter you will not raise many mushrooms, you 

 might raise a few. 



After trying it experimentally I equipped a cellar according to 

 the latest and the very best authorities I could read up on and 

 came out very successfully. It is like doing things a right and a 

 wrong way. You have to do it the right way to get the best 

 results. It .is like hatching chickens in an incubator, you are 

 very likely to cook the chickens. It is very easy done in the 

 proper way. They should be planted about ten inches deep and 

 in three days tlTey will sprout, after being in sprout ten days 

 they will bloom and should be mulched with straw to keep them 

 moist and in three months they will bear mushrooms and should 

 bear one pound to the square foot. A cellar as large as this 

 room if laid in berths would raise two crops during the winter 



