250 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



and deeper ones, and the round baskets received from 

 nurserymen with plants, are admirably adapted for 

 the -wholesale growth of Mushrooms on the portable 

 method. When these are over a foot deep, it would 

 not be necessary to quite fill them with materials, 

 and the precautions of watering and testing for fear 

 of over-heating, referred to in the preceding general 

 article on Mushroom culture, would have to be ob- 

 served. Hence it would not do to fill spawn and soil 

 at once, as for Mushroom culture in small pots. 



But supposing a hamper, a, yard or more in 

 diameter, thus filled with Mushroom-growing mate- 

 rials, room could generally be found for it in an 

 empty stable, or comer of a stable, cow-house, or 

 bullock-shed ; and it would be impossible for art 

 to provide a better or more genial atmosphere 

 for the rapid growth of Mushrooms Ihan that 

 produced without cost in such places by the in- 

 sensible perspiration and breathing of the animals. 

 Another capital plan for growing one or more 

 boxes or baskets of Mushrooms would be, on a few 

 basketfuls of fermenting materials in the corner of 

 any outhouse or cart-shed, with a covering of the 

 same or of hay thrown over the surface. Neat clean 

 boxes could also "be placed in store-rooms, beer, coal, 

 or wine cellars, in the larder or kitchen, or any spare 

 room or comer. Properly prepared, the boxes or 

 baskets would need no water till the Mushrooms 

 began to come, and probably little or none after- 

 wards. If the surface got dry, a mere dewing 

 over with a fine-rosed watering-pot would suffice ; 

 and if more water became needful as the crops 

 grew, it would not be very difficult to remove the 

 pots, pans, boxes, and baskets, give them a liberal 

 watering with water at a, temperature of 80° at the 

 least, cover over from the air, leave them an hour or 

 so to drip, and return from whence they came. If 

 Mushroom material in small pots gets dried up, the 

 simplest manner of watering such sufficiently is a dip 

 overhead in water of the above temperature. But 

 this is seldom needful unless they are placed in very 

 dry positions. The results of watering Mushroom- 

 beds in bearing, whether large or small, are so 

 problematical, and the judgment needful to perform 

 this crucial operation so great, that, as a rule, the 

 amateur grower will do far better by gathering all 

 the beds will yield without watering, then removing 

 them, and starting anew with fresh material, instead 

 of striving, often in vain, to resuscitate the produc- 

 tive force of semi-exhausted beds by attempts to 

 water them again into new life and more produce. 



Yet watering properly understood and skilfully 

 practised is often most useful. ITie two worst diffi- 

 culties in the way of the successful culture of Mush- 

 rooms, are an excess of moisture and a low tempera- 

 ture at the same time. Now, supposing a pot, box. 



or basket of Mushrooms, to be over-watered, nothing 

 can be easier than to whip them up, place them in 

 or over a dunghill for a time, or in a hot closet 

 or warm shelf in kitchen or store-room, or over the 

 manger in stable or cow-house, until the evil effects 

 of excessive moisture are neutralised by the prompt 

 application of extra caloric. 



Again, supposing a pot, box, or basket of Mush- 

 rooms fail, the loss is but trifling, and others may 

 soon be pushed forward to fill the gap. But 

 should a large bed get out of order, there is the 

 loss of months, and also of a large amount of 

 produce. 



But the great advantage of this system is that 

 it brings Mushroom culture within reach of all. 

 The poorest cottager may pick up an old box at his 

 grocer's for twopence, and sufficient amount of 

 droppings may be gathered off the road at lus very 

 door, and for another penny the nearest nurseryman 

 wiU furnish him with a bit of spawn ; a spadeful or 

 two of new soil, or of common garden earth, vrill 

 suffice to cover it ; it may be propped up over the 

 sleeping place of his pig, and anon he will gather 

 several shiUingsworth of Mushrooms, either to add 

 to his slender income, or provide a few most nutri- 

 tive meals for himseK and family. The artisan and 

 amateur will find a new pleasure in the culture of 

 the Mushroom on these portable plans. 



Those, too, with small gardens, may place bits 

 of spawn among their growing crops in the kitchen 

 garden, bury some horse-droppings, with a morsel 

 of spawn in their centre, in their grass lawns, and 

 place pieces wrapped round with prepared dung 

 under cloches and bell-glasses, and in cucumber 

 and melon frames towards autumn-tide as these 

 crops decline, and under the stages and shelves of 

 their green-houses and conservatories ; and so after 

 due time find Mushrooms springing up, alike to 

 their profit and pleasure, in the most out-of-the-way 

 places. 



Mushroom-growing is indeed one of those pursuits 

 that those in crowded towns may follow as suc- 

 cessfully as the more favoured horticulturist in the 

 country. The best of horse-droppings abound in 

 towns. Boxes of aU kinds are also plentiful, and a 

 few of these properly filled could even be placed on 

 areas, balconies, and housetops. Carefully covered 

 over, and protected from extremes of drought and 

 of cold, the spawn would run as freely and as 

 strongly among surrounding soot, dust, and dirt, as 

 in the purest air of the country. The portable 

 Mushroom-beds, canopied with cocoa-fibre, tissue, 

 moss, or, if preferred, an old flannel petticoat, will 

 feel none of the untoward influences around them, 

 and are, when they push through, smoothly coverecl 

 with an anti-adhesive skin, that the blacks will 



