Book I. 



CULTURE OF THE MUSHROOM. 



603 



at all times ready for the table. I shall suppose three boxes to be filled at one time. 

 Each, box may be three feet long, one and a half broad, and seven inches in depth. Let 

 each box be half filled with horse-dung from the stables (the fresher the better, and if 

 wet, to be dried for three or four days before it be put in the boxes) ; the dung is to be 

 well beat down in the boxes. After the second or third day, if any heat has arisen 

 amongst the dung, it is then a fit time to spawn : break each spawn-brick into three 

 parts as equal as possible ; then lay the pieces, about four inches apart, upon the surface 

 of the dung in the box ; here they are to lie for six days, when it will probably be found, 

 that the side of the spawn next to the dung has begun to run in the dung below ; then 

 add one and a half inch of more fresh dung upon the top of the spawn in the box, and 

 beat it down as formerly. In the course of a fortnight, the box will be ready to receive 

 the mould on the top ; this mould must be two and a half inches deep, well beat 

 down with the back of a spade, and the surface made quite even. But before the box 

 be earthed over, it will be proper to take up a little of the dung, as far down as near the 

 bottom of the box, to see if the spawn has run through the dung ; if not, let the box 

 stand unearthed for some days longer, for, were it to be earthed before the spawn had 

 run through the dung, there would be put a poor crop. In the space of five or six weeks 

 the mushrooms will begin to come up ; if then the mould seems dry, give a gentle wa- 

 tering, the water being slightly heated in any warm place before applied. This water- 

 ing will make the mushrooms start freely, and of a large size. I cut three myself, which 

 weighed 18^ oz. from a box treated as above. The boxes will continue to produce for 

 six weeks, and I have had them productive sometimes for two months, if duly attended to, 

 by giving a little water when dry, for they need neither light nor free air. I have had 

 thirty-two pretty well-sized mushrooms in one cluster. If cut as button-mushrooms, 

 each box will yield from six to twelve Scots pints (24 to 48 Eng. pints), according to 

 the season and other circumstances. The plan now described, I prefer for yielding 

 numbers of mushrooms, and where a great many are required ; but when reared without 

 dung, they are best flavored. They are not then to be distinguished from those which 

 grow naturally in the fields, but comparatively few are in this way produced. I have 

 lately found it very useful to add to every three barrow-loads of horse-dung, one of per- 

 fectly dry coiv-dung, beat down to powder as it were, and well mixed among the horse- 

 dung, after the horse-dung has lain under cover for four or five days to dry. The reason 

 I tried the cow-dung dry was, that I still found the horse-dung to have a strong damp, 

 after having lain in the boxes for some time ; but the cow-dung, when beat down to 

 powder, has the effect to dry up this damp, and also to make the horse-dung lie in the 

 box more compactly ; and the more it is pressed down, the finer the spawn will run 

 amongst it." (Wales, in Caled. Hort. Mem.) 



3443. Growing mushrooms, in pots, boxes, <^c. ivithout dung. " Take a little straw, and 

 lay it carefully in the bottom of the mushroom-box, about an inch thick, or rather 

 more. Then take some of the spawn-bricks, and break them down, each brick into 

 about ten pieces, and lay the fragments upon the straw, as close to each other as they 

 will lie. Cover them up with mould, three and a half inches deep, and well pressed 

 down. When the surface appears dry, give a little tepid water, as directed for the last 

 way of raising them ; but this method needs about double the quantity of water that the 

 former does, owing to having no moisture in the bottom, while the other has the 

 dung. The mushrooms will begin to start in a month or five weeks, sometimes sooner, 

 sometimes later, according to the heat of the place where the boxes are situated. They 

 do not rise so thick nor of so large a size, nor dp they continue to be produced so long, 

 as in the other plan with dung." {Wales.) 



3444. Comjwst or mould for growing mushrooms in boxes. *' Take a quantity of horse- 

 dung from the stable-yard fresh, and for every layer of dung, six inches in depth, lay 

 three inches of fine earth from any light goil ; these alternate layers may be repeated till 

 there be as much as will probably be wanted for the course of a year. After this mix- 

 ture has lain about six months or so, the dung will be sufficiently rotten : it should then 

 be well broken with a spade, and passed through a garden-sieve. Two inches of this 

 compost laid upon the top of the box, and well pressed down with the back of a 

 spade, will be found to answer. It is to be understood, that the same compost, made of 

 the dung and earth, is used for going on the top of the beds formed with dung, 

 as well as on those without it, observing to have it sifted fine, and well dried, for 

 if it be damp, the spawn would not run freely amongst it." (Oldacre, in Horticultural 

 Transactions. ) 



3445. Culture of the mushroom in melon-beds. The following mode has been prac- 

 tised by the Rev. W. Williamson, for several years, with great success. He considers 

 it more economical and generally practicable than the plan of Oldacre. " Having made 

 my melon-bed in the usual manner, when the burning heat is over, and the bed is ready 

 to be earthed to a sufficient thickness, I place spawn on the sides of the luills, and also on 

 the surface of the bed, and then cover the whole with mould, as usual, managing the 



