33° 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1905 



The Cultivation of the Morel 



By Jacques Boyer 



HE morel (Morchella esculenta) is distin- 

 guished from all the other edible fungi of 

 France * by its peculiar appearance. Its 

 pedunculate, deeply pitted head, of which 

 the depressions are sometimes regular, but 

 occasionally assume the appearance of mere 

 furrows with wrinkle-like interstices, prevents it from being 

 confounded with any poisonous species of fungi. Its savory 

 and fragrant flesh causes it to be highly prized by gourmets; 

 and so, when the pale yellow and brown morels make their 

 appearance in the woods under the influence of the spring 

 showers of April, the peasants hasten to gather them in order 

 to sell them at a remunerative price to the dealers in early 

 fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, it is a treat that 

 mycophagists alone are capable of enjoying, since these 

 honeycombed discomycetes do not grow in so great abun- 



object the artificial culture of the morel from the spore. 

 This scientist proceeded as follows: He took some glass 

 tubes forty inches in length and one inch in diameter and 

 filled them with vegetable material reduced to the state of 

 humus (rotten wood, dead leaves, etc.). After a prelimi- 

 nary sterilization, he put some spores in one of the extremities 

 of the tube, after which germination took place very rapidly. 

 At the end of twenty-four hours the mycelium made its 

 appearance, at the place where the spores had been deposited, 

 with the aspect of a fine white down, of which the filaments 

 ramified in the vegetable mold, and in a few weeks ex- 

 tended throughout the entire length of the tube. Into the 

 end of the latter was then inserted the extremity of another 

 and identical tube. When the operation was conducted under 

 protection from mold, the propagation of the mycelium was 

 continued into the second tube; but, in case of contamination, 



Morel (Morchella esculenta) 



dance as the boleti and cantharelli. Certain mushroom 

 growers once tried to cultivate them, but did not succeed in 

 obtaining encouraging results. However, along about the 

 year 1872, a man named Geslin, by sowing some fragments 

 of morels in an artificial soil composed of one-fifth rotten 

 wood, two-fifths of earth taken from a place where these 

 fungi grew, and two-fifths of rich earth, obtained a small 

 crop for several years in succession. 



This process was not based upon any scientific data, as 

 were the researches of Mons. Charles Repin, having for their 



* The morel occurs, under a variety of forms, in various parts of the world. 

 It is more or less plentiful in this country. As it dries very readily, and may be 

 kept for some time, it is much used by European cooks for flavoring gravies. It 

 is also dressed in various ways when fresh, and makes an excellent dish when 

 stuffed with finely minced white meat. It may likewise be advantageously 

 employed, instead of mushrooms, for making catchup. Morels are particularly 

 fond of burned soil, and the collecting of them is so profitable to the peasants in 

 Germany that the latter were formerly in the habit of setting fire to the woods to 

 encourage their growth, till the practice was made punishable by a special law. — Ed. 



the mycelium vegetation perished. Therefore, in order to 

 prevent the invasion of the noxious mold, it was important 

 to select as an artificial soil some sort of vegetable debris of 

 which the fermentable substances had disappeared as a con- 

 sequence of decomposition. A few months later on the fila- 

 ments of the mycelium (which are represented in the accom- 

 panying micrograph at the beginning of their growth from 

 the spore) were seen to be more voluminous, and sometimes 

 even there were observed felted masses that had resulted 

 from the agglutination of various filaments. With age, the 

 mycelium became capable of resisting the effect of mold, 

 and after that it was possible for M. Repin to establish 

 open ground cultures in the country. In imitation of the 

 process employed with the common mushroom (Agaricus 

 campestris), he prepared masses of vegetable mold of vary- 

 ing composition which he buried in trenches, and here and 

 there inverted adult spawn taken from his tubes. Several 



