GROWING MUSHEOOMS IK THE FIELDS. 55 



the previous year. Why this should be so is not very 

 clear. The popular opinion is that after a dry summer 

 mushrooms abound in the fields, but after a wet summer 

 they are a very scarce crop ; and the inference is that 

 the moisture has killed the spawn in the ground. This 

 may be true to a certain extent, but bow does it happen 

 — as it certainly often does — that good spawn planted by 

 hand in the fields in early summer will produce mush- 

 rooms toward fall no matter whether the summer has 

 been wet or dry ? At tlie same time, it is true that a 

 wet spell immediately succeeding the planting of the 

 spawn will kill a great deal of it. 



As a rule, wild mushrooms abound most in rich, old, 

 well-drained, rolling pasture lands, and avoid dry, sandy, 

 or wet places, or the neighborhood of trees and bushes. 

 In attempting to cultivate them in the open fields we 

 should endeavor to provide similar conditions. Then 

 the chief requisite is good spawn, for without this we 

 can not raise mushrooms. 



About the middle of June take a sharp spade in the 

 pasture, make V or T-shaped cuts in the grass sod about 

 four inches deep and raise one side enough to allow the 

 insertion of a bit of spawn two to three inches square 

 under it, so that it shall be about two inches below the 

 surface, then tamp the sod down. By cutting and 

 raising the sod in this way, without breaking it off, it 

 is not as likely to die of drought in summer. In this 

 way plant as much or little as may be desired and at 

 distances of three, four, or more feet apart. During the 

 following August or September the mushrooms should 

 show themselves, and continue in bearing for several 

 weeks. 



Mr. Henshaw, of Staten Island, who has been very 

 successful in growing mushiooms in the fields as well as 

 indoors, writes to me as follows : "You ask me to give 

 you my plan of growing mushrooms in the fields during 



