1887. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



189 



rod. This should be promptly followed at 

 times, and in quantities to suit the different 

 crops, for keeping the land well up to the 

 proper standard of fertility. Manure to be in 

 the best shape should lay some months before 

 applying, lieeping it in the meantime under a 

 shell to prevent undue rain leathing. The 

 stables and yards ought to be arranged so that 

 the urine may be collected and pumped upon 

 the pile to aid dec'omposition. Night soil is a 

 ver}' rich manure and needs always to be 

 mixed with twice or three times its bulk of 

 dry earth, and allowed to lay some months be- 

 fore putting on the land. 



Bone manures, either in a crushed or ])ow- 

 dered state, or dis.solved in acid a.s superphos- 

 phate, possess much value. Dried blood is 

 esteemed of about eciual value. These fertil- 

 izers are used at the rate of from a third of a 

 ton to a ton per acre, or from live to Hfteeu 

 pounds per square rod, the best results follow- 

 ing if they were previously mi.xed with three 

 times their bulk of fairly dry earth, leaf mold, 

 or muck. Poultry manure is another of the 

 richer manures, requiring to be applied in 

 about the quantity and manner just described. 

 House sewage contains a good deal of manu- 

 rial value, especially for dry lands. 



Of mineral manures the principal ones are 

 lime, nitrate of soda, nitrate of potash, kainit, 

 and sulphate of ammonia. As to the value of 

 these in any given case, so much depends upon 

 the nature and general fertility of the soil that 

 this must in the main be determined by trial. 

 With lime, for instance, where the soil natur- ' 

 ally contains enough of this element, it would 

 be a waste of time and money to apply more, 

 but where it is lacking there cannot lie a more 

 effective fertilizer than lime, provided it be 

 properly supplemented by animal manures. 

 The same is in the main true of the other 

 mineral manures. They should be tried. 



Ijooking at the purpose of manuring, the 

 providing of food to plant roots, the method 

 and time of applying may have a varied effect 

 on results. Coarse, lumpy manure is less 

 available as food than manure that is finely 

 divid-sd, a point greatly in favor of stable 

 manure that is decomposed so as to go readily 

 to pieces with handling, and of the fine com- 

 mercial manures, composts, etc. Manure that 

 is deeply plowed under is not so useful to shal- 

 low-rooting crops, as the same applied on the 

 surface, and then worked into the soil with the 

 harrow or cultivator. Take such a course of 

 sm'face manuring as this and let it be followed 

 by plowing, and the soil with its well-incorpor- 

 ated manxire will be distributed in the best 

 possible shape for the average of crops. 



For all ordinary top-dressing with manure, 

 such as on lawns, meadows, orchai'ds, as weD 

 as in applying to ground to be plowed, there 

 is a growing preference for fall applications, 

 say from October to December. This provides 

 for the rich and soluble portions to be well 

 carried down into the soil before spring tillage 

 is begun, and without the help of harrows and 

 cultivators, as previously suggested. To apply 

 manure in the winter when the ground is 

 frozen, while it may have the advantage of in- 

 creased leisure for the work, and of admitting 

 of travel on the land with loads not to harden 

 it, these gains are greatly offset by the loss 

 of the rich juices when thaws or rains start 

 the flow of water over the frost-locked surface. 

 {To be continued.) 



The economic value of Mushroom diet is 

 placed as second to meat alone. With bread, 

 and Mushrooms properly prepared, a person 

 may neglect the butcher during the season 

 when this growth may be gathered. Mush- 

 rooms, as Professor Palmer has stated, make 

 the same use of the air we breathe as is made 

 by animals; when cooked they resemble no 

 other form of vegetable food, and in decay 

 their odor in some ca.ses cannot be distinguished 

 from that of putrid meat. Certain it is that 



The Grow/lng of Mushrooms. 



Mushrooms are anything but widely appre- 

 ciated as food in America. And yet there is 

 no country richer in Mushroom food, growing 

 spontaneously, than is ours. Were the people 

 of Germany, Italy, France, or Russia to see 

 our clearings during the autumn rains they 

 would feast on the rich food which in many 

 places here goes to waste. It is the epicures of 

 America, in fact, who appi'e<-iate this food, 

 paying fancy prices for it in the markets. 



THE COMMON MUSHROOM (Agaricus campe.itris). 



the parasol-like growth used for food, and which 

 springs up in a night, is not a plant in any 

 sense. It is rather analogous to a flower, bear- 

 ing, as it does, the spores that are analogous to 

 seeds. The true plant which feeds, grows and 

 finally prepares to flower, is the network of 

 whitish threads which form what is commonly 

 known as the "spawn," or botanically the 

 mycelium of the Mushroom. 



It is to the garden or indoor culture of the 

 Common Mushroom, Agaricus campi>stris, 

 shown in our engraving, that we desire here to 

 caU attention. There is an ease and novelty 

 about this business which should make it at- 

 tractive, not only to all amateurs for home 

 use, but to commercial gardeners nea:' all lai'ge 

 tovras. Some of the largest profits the writer 

 has ever made in gardening was by growing 

 Mushrooms under greenhouse benches in win- 

 ter, and selling them in the Buffalo mai-ket, at 

 from 50 cents to $1 a pound at wholesale. 



The conditions necessary to success consist 

 in growing them in very rich soil, the indis- 

 pensable ingredient of which is horse manure, 

 and in a steady temperature. Any place, such 

 as a,cellar, shed, greenhouse pit, space under 

 the benches, etc., where either natm-ally P— 

 or by the use of artificial means, a tem- ". 

 perature of from .50° to 60° may be had 

 will answer. Good drainage must also be "^ 

 provided, hence, a shelf as in the lower i ' 

 figure, or a series of shelves, may readily 

 be employed to hold beds. 



The manure should be dry and freed as 

 much as possible of straw or other litter by 

 shaking out. Manure alone can be used 

 in which to grow them, by repeatedly 

 treading it down and throwing over to get 

 rid of its greatest heat, but usually it is pre- 

 ferred to mix from one fourth its bulk to 

 equal its bulk with good garden soil. It is 

 best to allow something of an accumulation 

 before putting down into beds. 



The manure ready, and it may at once be 

 made into beds. The beds may be of most any 

 shape or size desired, but experience proves 

 that to have them from two to four feet wide 

 and about 20 inches deep answers about the 

 best. Where there is a good deal of room it is 

 well to make the beds more or less sloping at 

 the sides. Beds may also be made in old tubs, 

 in casks sawed in two, or in boxes. In this 

 way they could, after the making and for 

 cropping, be carried into eellai-s or other parts 



of dwelling houses where one would not like to 

 bring in the manure in its rough form. We 

 see no rea.son indeed why the preparing and 

 selling of Mushroom boxes, to be grown in 

 houses, should not in some places become a 

 profitable branch of the gardener's business. 



In putting down the manure and soil, it 

 should be firmly packed, layer by layer, with a 

 brick or other weiglit. A thermometer should 

 at some central point be imbedded into the soil, 

 with its bulb some three inches Ijelow the sur- 

 face. The probability is that the temperature 

 in the bed will rise for a few days, and then 

 begin to lower. When it reaches about H()° 

 the bed is ready to spawn. Spawn may l>e 

 purchase*! in bricks of all seeflsmen for the 

 start in Mushroom culture; once begun and 

 any of the white spawn-lleiked earth of an old 

 bed will answer for jilanting new beds. 



For inserting, the bricks or pieces of spawn 

 are first broken to half the size of a hand 

 lengthwise, or some less. These are placed into 

 the top and other exposed surfaces of the bed, 

 at about ten inches apart, and half as deep, 

 covering up fiinUy. After some ten days 

 spread o\er the bed about three inches of fresh 

 loam, and then wait for your crop. This should 

 begin to show a few weeks later, varying some- 

 what according to temperature. 



It is often possible tg dispense with watering 

 the beds, this being only necessai-y when the 

 surface gets ijuite dry. Then water carefully, 

 using water heated to about 100 degrees. 



By making up beds at intervals of ten or 

 twelve weeks throughout the year a continuous 

 supply of Mushrooms may be secured. The 

 product is usually salable at all seasons in 

 limited quantities. It is to be hoped that the 

 consumption of this valuable food ai-ticle will 

 greatly increase in the near future. Let our 

 readers in general inaugurate the growing and 

 using of Mushrooms commonly. 



356. Asparagus Query. Do not cut the plants 

 down to the tfround until the berries turn red and 

 the stalk brown. The end of October will be about 

 the proper tinie.—C. E. P. 



370. Pale Marechal Niel Kose. How old is 

 your plant? When the plants are young and vig- 

 orous the color is all right, but when the plants are 

 old, or the roots injured, the color is pale and in- 

 terior. You may be injuring the plant by giving 

 liquid manure too freely. C. E. P. 



•390. Watering Agapanthus. This plant likes 

 a good supply of water at the roots, but it is not a 

 good plan to place it in pans of water. We flower 

 it finely every year oiit-of-doors, and do not give 

 more water than other plants receive.— A. H. E. 



394. Training Lima Beans. The use of very 

 high poles is not economical. The vines on rich 

 soil, as that for Limas should be, grow too much 

 to top, and need to be shortened in to produce the 

 largest and earliest crop. With poles four or five 



MUSHROON BED ON SHELF NEAR THE FLOOR. 



feet high, and the beans stopped when they reach 

 the summit, the crop will be better and more easily 

 secured than with the eight foot or more poles 

 often used, which need to be set deeply, and are 

 even then liable to blow off or break off, thus de- 

 stroying the hill. One way to prevent this, how- 

 ever, is to set the poles in each four adjacent hills 

 inclining towards a common center, draw the tops 

 together and tie; but mind that poles more than 

 five feet high are senseless.— A. H. E. 



39.'). Lilium Candidum. The White Lily often 

 fails to flower the year after planting- it dislikes 

 disturbance. If planted in light, rich soil which 

 has been long under cultivation .and is well drained 

 and in good heart, they will be all right next year. 

 They dislike fresh manure, and. as tar as 1 liave 

 seen, do best over a gravel subsoil. A. H. E, 



