An outdoor mushroom bed may be made near the house 
All failures in mushroom culture may be laid to ignorance 
of that fact. Many people ask me, “Can you transplant a 
mushroom?” I answer, ‘‘Can you transplant an apple?” 
You can put an apple or a mushroom under ground but 
both will rot. The seeds of the apple may sprout young 
trees and the spores of the mushroom may germinate spawn 
for a future crop. An apple tree exists above ground and 
the mushroom tree below ground or within wood. The 
apple tree is strong and robust. ‘The mushroom tree com- 
prises little white threads in most instances, although the 
mycelium of some of the Polyporus genera, looks exactly 
like strips of white kid leather, and in the species Su/- 
phureus, is fully as thick and as tough when dried out. 
Knowing that in mushroom culture you are to raise an 
equivalent of fruit, you will go at it as intelligently as if 
pomiculture were involved and attain success from the start 
more speedily. You mix a compost in which to grow your 
mushroom “tree.” You make the bed for it according to 
the size of your space. You buy your young mushroom 
“tree” either in form of brick spawn or virgin spawn. You 
distribute the spawn in a bed of compost, then water it but 
little, or not at all and care for it as you do the vegetable 
beds. Later, all you will have to do is to pick the mush- 
rooms, as other fruit might be picked. It is perfectly sim- 
ple if one goes at it with only this understanding. No 
explanations are necessary, only some few directions which 
I shall give for raising. Germination cannot be explained 
in a grain of wheat nor in a seedling potato. These things 
do germinate and that is almost all we know about it ex- 
cept that we know exactly how to make them germinate 
according to our requirements. So too with the mushroom, 
which, however, is not given to similar forms of germina- 
tion and requires different treatment. 
Another thing to remember about the mushroom is that 
it will not fruit indoors unless the temperature is kept at 
not much lower than fifty-four degrees Fahr. nor higher 
than sixty degrees Fahr. Ask not why; it won’t! In conse- 
quence, we have mushrooms in the markets from October 
to June at very low prices, while during the hot months it is 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
December, 1912 
almost impossible to purchase them at any price and cer- 
tainly at not less than $1.50 per pound. All last Summer 
in the resort district of the New Jersey coast, boys and 
girls got $1.50 a pound for all the commercial mushrooms 
(Agaricus campester) growing wild, or self-cultivated on 
lawns, they could gather. This suggests that outdoor Sum- 
mer beds ought to be profitable, and that one should begin 
now to make plans for them next season. In December’s 
market one may often purchase mushrooms of good quality 
for thirty-five cents a pound. After this month the prices 
usually advance to a dollar per pound when cold weather 
requires the use of more steam-heat to get the temperature 
of the mushroom cellars up to sixty degrees Fahr. 
The professional mushroom growers make an inexcus- 
able mistake in not installing in their Summer mushroom 
houses, cold storage ammonia pipes to reduce the heat of 
Summer to the required temperature. I have not been able 
to discover a single grower in America who has tried it. 
With a proper cold storage plant, such as one finds installed 
in modern apartment houses, doing away with ice largely, a 
mushroom farm could be made more profitable through the 
three hot months than during the cold nine months. It 
should be understood that the mushroom takes care of itself 
outdoors. Whatever the heat, it fruits in July, August, Sep- 
tember and October. The cultivated mushroom, (which 
species also grows wild) apparently is not annual, that is, the 
mycelium is supposed to die when it ceases to fruit. Other 
deliciously wild edible mushrooms are annual and very pro- 
lific, fruiting in the same place seven or eight months per 
year, as for instance the Coprinus Micaceus. This is the best 
salad mushroom, but, as usual, it is still overlooked as 
being merely a “toadstool,” although it grows everywhere. 
Mushroom culture is necessarily forced by use of rich com- 
post, temperature, and by beds that are kept more or less 
in darkness. Every step taken in mushroom culture to-day 
may be said to be forced, and various methods are used 
from spore to spawn, and thence to fruit. Because the 
periodicity of the cultivated mushroom is unknown, breed- 
ers assume that the mycelium is exhausted when a season of 
fruiting is over, that the beds have become sterile, and that 
a new bedding of compost must be installed. I have ample 
proof that this discarded bedding reproduces again when 
used as a fertilizer in gardens. The mycelium of all fungi 
lives as long as its host, if parasitic, while the host has life; 
if saprophytic, while the host continues its process of decay, 
which may be even longer than its stage of life. 
Mushroom spawn bricks may or may not reproduce. 
They should be purchased from a mushroom farm of first- 
class reputation. Virgin spawn may be preferred, but it is 
not to be so generally obtained in this country. 
A mushroom bed for the requirements of an average 
home, should, wherever placed, comprise fifty square feet in. 
SS 
Uemura 
Agaricus campester, the mushroom of commerce 
