after spawning. Of course this would not be 
necessary, ordinarily. 
SPAWNING THE BED 
We used the pure culture spawn; two 
dollars’ worth is enough for fifty square feet 
of bed. ‘The directions for spawning are to 
make holes in the manure a few inches deep 
and a foot apart with a pointed stick, to put 
a piece of spawn the size of an egg in each 
hole, and to press the manure together over it. 
This procedure was followed carefully; but 
from last year’s experience we have decided to 
make the holes closer and put less spawn in 
them, when making another bed. We hope 
thus to distribute the mushrooms more evenly 
over the surface of the bed. After spawning 
the room was darkened by hanging rugs over 
the windows, but we have never been able to 
find out whether mushrooms really prefer the 
dark or not. 
AN EARLY RUN 
About two weeks after spawning one is 
supposed to examine the bed to see if there 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
same as the room itself, and refused to rise 
again, in spite of two further sprinklings with 
warm water. Great was our triumph, there- 
fore, when one day, exactly two months after 
putting in the spawn, we discovered masses 
of tiny mushrooms no bigger than pinheads 
scattered irregularly over the bed. A few 
days later, February 11th, we gathered our 
first crop, a quarter of a pound; and from 
then to June 14th, when the bed was cleared 
out, we gathered forty-eight and a half pounds 
—a good result for a first attempt, as any 
yield over half a pound to the square foot is 
looked upon as a success by commercial 
growers. 
All the little pinheads that first appear do 
not grow into big mushrooms—only a few 
mature—and the later mushrooms are much 
bigger, one to two inches in diameter, when 
they push through the soil. The pinhead 
stage is only the first manifestation; or it may 
even have been peculiar to our bed. Fs 
We made one serious mistake that caused 
the bed to yield poorly for a few weeks. In 
all directions for mushroom culture repeated 
For best flavor gather the mushrooms just after the veil has broken. The specimen on the left is in prime 
condition. If older than shown on the right flavor will be lacking 
are fine white threads in the manure around 
the lumps of spawn. ‘This means that the 
spawn is “running,” and it is time to ‘‘case”’ 
the bed. As we lacked patience to wait two 
weeks we scratched up a little corner at the 
end of one week. ‘The spawn seemed to be 
“running” all right, so we ‘“‘cased”’ the bed 
without further delay. ‘‘Casing” means 
spreading a layer of good soil, free from stones 
and hard lumps, over the surface about one 
to one and a half inches thick. And then 
we settled down to a long wait. 
MUSHROOMS IN TWO MONTHS 
Mushrooms are said to appear in from four 
to fourteen weeks, and because of the low 
temperature at which we spawned the bed 
we were prepared for the worst. ‘The tem- 
perature sank slowly from 68° to 50°, the 
warnings are given not to make the bed too 
wet: if it must have water give only a light 
sprinkling. So when our mushrooms sud- 
denly began to be very small and very tough, 
and failed to improve under the “‘light sprink- 
ling’ advised, we were at a loss to know the 
trouble. We could get no enlightenment from 
any of our literature on the subject, and being 
without experience could not decide whether 
they were rotting from too much water or 
drying up from too little. At last, to settle 
the matter even at the risk of ruining the bed, 
we gave it a good soaking with four gallons 
of tepid water. Ina few days we saw mush- 
rooms appearing once more and such splendid 
big ones that there could be no doubt that 
we had chosen the right course. ‘Though 
writers on mushroom culture are: right in ~ 
warning against the too free use of -water; 
OcTOBER, 1906 
this incident will show that too little water is 
also a danger and that smal] tough mush- 
rooms are the result. The watering, of 
course, should be done after gathering the 
mushrooms, and always with a sprinkler; in 
that way it does no harm to the young mush- 
rooms remaining in the bed. 
FLAVOR AND SIZE 
We have come to the conclusion that the 
flavor of the mushroom is at its best after the 
‘‘veil” has broken, but before the edges of the 
cap are rolled up. ‘‘Buttons” and very old 
mushrooms have comparatively little taste 
and the size of the mushroom seems to have 
nothing to do with the flavor, the little ones 
being as good as the big quarter-pound ones. 
There is no choice, either, between the white- 
capped and the brown-capped varieties in 
this matter, but the brown ones have the ad- 
vantage of growing a trifle larger before the 
“veil” breaks. ‘The white one is the prettier. 
Great care must be taken in gathering 
mushrooms not to pull out a great many little 
ones with the big ones, as they generally come 
in thick clusters. The best way is to take 
the cap firmly in the fingers of the right hand 
and twist out the mushroom, at the same time 
pressing the soil down on either side of the 
stem with the first and second fingers of the 
left hand. In this way the others are not dis- 
turbed and the whole stem of the mushroom 
comes out—an important point, as stubs left 
in the ground are said often to rot and cause 
trouble. As soon as a mushroom is gathered 
the lower part of the stem should be cut off, 
so that there may be no danger of soil falling 
into the gills when it is laid down. If at the 
same time the cap is brushed off with a soft 
cloth all necessity of washing the mushroom 
will be done away with, and the loss of much 
of its flavor consequently avoided. We know 
this from eating both washed and unwashed 
mushrooms. 
COOKING TO RETAIN FLAVOR 
There are many ways of cooking mush- 
rooms, but the two simplest—broiled and 
sauté—are the best, as they interfere the 
least with the mushroom’s own flavor. In 
any case cut off the stem close to the gills and 
peel the cap from the edge to the crown. If 
they are to be broiled, have the fire low and 
lay them on an open oyster broiler, gills down 
for a few minutes at first. ‘Then turn them 
with a fork—it crushes them too much to 
close the broiler on them—sprinkle a very 
little salt on them, and just before they are 
tender lay a little piece of butter in the centre 
of each one, where it will melt and run 
through the gills. Serve them on toast, not 
buttered, as buttered toast has too much 
taste of itsown. Tosauté them, put them ina 
sauce pan with a little butter—no water—and 
cook them, under a cover, from a half to three 
quarters of an hour over boiling water. A 
beautiful brown juice cooks out of them to 
moisten the toast. Some people add a little 
cream at the last moment, but we thought 
them better without it. The most important 
thing is to serve them very hot. For this 
reason it is nice to do them at the table in a 
chafing dish. 
emma en 
