43& 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



No. 7 



ON THE CULTURE OF THE HIUSHROOM. 1 



By Alex, Forsyth. 



From Loudon's Gaitiener'g Magazine. 



The mubhroom is? an acceptable arlicle at table 

 all the year round ; to su|)ply this regular demaiKl 

 various plans are resorted to, and that which I 

 have proved (o be the cheapest and most efficient 

 mode I shall here detail. By cheapness, however, 

 j must not be understood to mean that lalse econ- 

 omy which short-siirhted persons practise, oi" sav- 

 ing in the first outlay, and afterwards paying a 

 greater sum, as it were, by instalments, or yearly 

 rent, without an adequate return, or the possession 

 ol" a creditable and salisifactory article. The cul- 

 ture of the mushroom, in many of our gardens, is 

 an admirable specimen of this sort of economy. 

 Instead of building workmanlike mushroom vaults, 

 with bricks, morlar, and cement, not subject tc the 

 dry-rot, nor to any olher kind of rot, with the look 

 and the leality of stability and usefulness, we find 

 either ridges in the open air, covered with litter and 

 mats, which must be taken oM' and put on at every 

 gathering, or else, which is worse, the mushrooms 

 growing in a shed behind the hot-houses, on shelves 

 hall-consumed with the dry-rot, and the wooden 

 roof over head, as a matter of course, in the same 

 predicament. 



Preparing the Spawn. — Cake or brick spawn is 

 the only son that I consider worlh making, and 

 there is only one sortol materials that I think ad- 

 visable to make il of, and these are, equal portions 

 of hurse-droppings, cow-droppings, and loam, 

 well mixed, and pounded or beaten, adding just 

 only as much water as will bring the materials to 

 the consistency of brickraakers' moulding mortar. 

 Then let a circular mould without a bottom, 9 in. 

 in diameter ana 2 in. deep, be placed on a table, 

 with the wide end uppermost, and filled with this 

 mortar and stroked level; before it is turned out of 

 the mould, let three holes be made in each cake, 

 with an iron-shod dibber, 1^ in. deep: the motild 

 must be shaped like the frustum of a cone, that 

 the cakes may easily part with it. When the 

 cakes are all but hand dry, let them he spawned, 

 by putting a piece of spawn about the size of a 

 pigeon's egg in each hole, enclosing it wilh a little 

 of the original mortar. Then pile the cakes in 

 pairs, with their spawned ends together, resem- 

 bling a cask; and in this stale let them be cased 

 up in brick-shaped batchee, and sweated and kept 

 up to about 85°, by placing a layer of sweet dung 

 all around and over the batch, varying it in quan- 

 tity, to obtain the desired heat. The spawn must 

 be examined as it runs in ili.j cakes, and when 

 one is broken and appears mouldy all through, 

 and smells of mushroom, it is mushroom spawn in 

 the highest state of r-crfeciion. To preserve it, 

 however, it must be thorougly dried in an airy loft, 

 and kept dry lor use. It will retain its properties 

 for several years. 



To grow the Mushrooms.— CoWecl a quantity of 

 horse-droppings, dry them a little in a open slied, 

 then lay a stratum of loamy turf, 2 in. or 3 in. 

 deep, in the bottom of the bed, and over this three 

 layers of droppings, each about 2 in. deep, rendered 

 as compact a? possible, by giving each layer a 

 good pummeling with a hand-mallet. When the 

 last layer is maile up, thrust a few "watch sticks" 

 into the bed, in order to ascertain when it begins 



to heat. When the heat is getting pretty strong, 

 let the bed be first beaten all over, then make holes 

 with an iron-shod dibber, 9 in. apart, and deep 

 enough to reach the stratum of loam: these will 

 soon cool the bed; and when the heat has declined 

 to about 80'^, the holes may be bored by a conical 

 block of wood, to about 2 in. in diameter, at 2 in. 

 deep, in order to receive the spawn. These holes 

 must be filled up, to about 3 in. from the surliice^ 

 with loam and horse-drojipings mixed ; then in- 

 sert a bit of spawn, about the size of a hen's egg 

 in each, and fill the holes up level with ihesurliice, 

 wilh the loam and droppings. The holes being 

 closed, the heat will increase, and must be atten- 

 ded to: if violent, a few deep narow holes may be 

 made to let it escape; and, if too slight, it may be 

 aided by a covering of dry hay, or a layer of warm 

 dung ; and when all danger of violent heat is gone 

 by, and the spawn beginning to run, put on the 

 upper stratum of loam, mixed with a little cut hay 

 or dry horse-droppings to make a tough firm crust, 

 about 1 in. deep. A temperature of 55*^ to 60°, I 

 consider is best for the atmosphere in the house, 

 and about 90'^ of bottom heat will set the spawn 

 actively to work. The beds must not be allowed 

 to get too dry, a layer of moist hay will prevent 

 this ; and, if too wet, a dry atmosphere can be got 

 by gentle fires and open ventilators, which will aid 

 them a little: but a bed once allowed to get thor- 

 oughly wet after spawning is, in my opinion, 

 hopeless; and such a bed 1 should certainly re- 

 move without loss of time. Mushroom spawn, 

 planted in loam and dung, or in either, and screened 

 irom sun and rain in summer, will produce this 

 vegetable in abundance; and the same materials 

 will produce the same cflect, under favorable cir- 

 cumstances, in winter; such as being placed in 

 boxes or baskets in a stable or warm cellar. In 

 gathering mushrooms lor present use, they may 

 be cut; but, if they are to be kept a few days, they 

 must be got wilh the stem entire. Hulf-driecl 

 droppings of highly fed horses, good spawn, and 

 a gentle moist atmosphere, are the principal things, 

 to be attended to in cultivating the mushroom. 



EMIGRATION. 



[Extract from the Southern Agriculturist.] 

 There are few of us who have not relatives or 

 friends that have emigrated to the west, and 

 whose dattering accounts of that region do not 

 render us uneasy, not to say unhappy at our situ- 

 ation here. Many of us have been there our- 

 selves, and their deep rich soil, their luxuriant fields, 

 their boundless discourse of hundreds of thousands 

 and of millions, have selilom liiiled to make us 

 lookback with absolute contempt upon our own 

 barren and spiritless land. With imaginations 

 fired by the glow which rests and shines on every 

 thing around, many purchase at once, and return 

 home to pull up stakes and abandon all the endear- 

 ing associations of infancy, youth and manhood, 

 lor the glorious prospect of unbounded wealth in 

 more favored climes. If any come back to look 

 once more upon his own fields before he deter- 

 mines to give them up forever, and the lapse of 

 time, the change of scene, the comforts of home 

 and friends, wear away his first vivid impression, 

 and deprive him of the resolution to go — still, in 



