Book I. 



CULTURE OF THE MUSHROOM. 



605 



3450. In a cellar. " Musbrooms may likewise be produced in a cellar, or any other 

 vaulted place, with equal success, and not unfrequently to greater advantage as to crop, 

 than in a shed, or other building, that is level with the surface of the earth. The same 

 rules of management are to be observed as directed for the shed. The peculiar advan- 

 tage of a cellar is, that no fire is necessary, and less water, the application of which so 

 frequently proves injurious, is wanted." 



3451. On hollow ridges. Hogan says he has devised an easy mode of growing 

 mushrooms under shelter, and tried it one season with great success. " The exterior 

 form of my bed resembles the old ones as built against a wall ; but instead of building it 

 solid, it is hollow ; strong stakes are inclined against the wall, at an angle of about 65°, 

 on which are placed hurdles to support the bed. By this means a cavity is formed under 

 the stakes, between them and the wall and floor, for the purpose of receiving dung, 

 which being readily changed, an opportunity is thus afforded of keeping up a permanent 

 moist heat in the bed, the absence of which, together with an insufficient depth of mould 

 for the spawn to run in, is the great defect of all other modes of raising mushrooms with 

 which I am acquainted. On this structure fourteen inches of rotten dung and four 

 inches of loamy earth were laid, and beat firm, and the spawning and other processes and 

 results were the same as usual." {Hort. Trans, v. 305.) We fear two things from this 

 mode — occasional overheating and overdrying, either of which are as ruinous to the 

 mushroom, as they are to cape-heaths in pots. 



3452. The following details of culture are common to each of tlie above modes of rearing 

 the mushroom : — 



3453. Season for commencement. Mushroom-beds or boxes may be formed and planted at any time of 

 the year ; but the month of September is the most natural season ; and the time next to be recommended 

 is early in spring. In June, July, and August, the weather is rather too warm ; and in the depth of 

 winter, it is not equally easy to excite and cherish the spawn. {Abercrombie.) Nicol makes up a bed in- 

 March to last till September, and another at that time to last through the winter, till the bed to be again 

 made in March comes into bearing. He adds, however, that there is no rule for making up these beds, as 

 it maybe done at any day of the year with nearly equal propriety. {Kalendar, p. 50.) 



3454. Time of growth. In autumn and spring, common ridges will often begin to produce plentifully in 

 four, five, or six weeks. > In summer or winter they are much longer before they become productive. 

 {Abercrombie.) In Wales's method of growing in boxes, they come up in five weeks. Abercrombie says, 

 mushroom-beds have been known to lie dormant for five or six months, and yet afterwards produce 

 abundant crops. Where a bed is cold, Nicol observes, it will be sometimes two or three months of pro- 

 ducing mushrooms. 



3455. Symptoms of progress. Nicol says, when you would know whether the spawn has begun to run, 

 thrust your hand a few inches deep into different parts of the bed, and examine what you bring up. If it 

 smells exactly of mushrooms, and has the appearance of bits of thread, then the spawn is in action. 

 " But generally you will be forewarned of the spawn's running, by a previous crop of spurious fungi, 

 which rise more or less abundantly, according to the fineness or grossness of the materials of which the 

 bed is composed. These fungi generally are either what are called pipes or balls ; and sometimes a kind 

 of mushroom, of a very bad sort, thin, flat, with white or pale yellow gills. They have all, however, a 

 nauseous, sickly smell, and may readily be distinguished from the true mushroom, which is thick, 

 hemispherical, with brown or reddish gills." 



3456. Duration of a crop. Six months is the ordinary duration of a common bed or ridge, made in the 

 open air or in a flued shed. Oldacre says, his beds will continue to produce for several months. To have 

 a succession, he earths a bed every two or three months. Wales's boxes (3442.) continue to produce 

 for six weeks, and sometimes two months. 



3457. Temperature. Nicol says, if the bed be placed in a flued shed, the temperature 

 in winter should be kept steadily to about 55 degrees. This is also Oldacre's 

 temperature. 



3458. Wales says, " I have ever found the best adapted and most productive heat to 

 be from 55 to 65 degrees, and the nearer the beds are kept to this heat the greater will 

 be the success." 



3459. Air is essentially necessary to the flavor of mushrooms. Oldacre says, air 

 must be admitted in proportion to the heat, otherwise the mushrooms become long in 

 their stems, and weak. The same thing takes place in ridges when the coverings are 

 too thick. 



3460. Water. Abercrombie and Nicol agree in recommending no water to be given till 

 the spawn begins to run. 



3461. Abercrombie says, *' In autumn, the bed will want no water until the first crop is gathered. Then 

 a sprinkling will help to excite a fresh vegetation. In spring, should a drying air long prevail, it may be 

 necessary to moisten the bed a little. In summer, the bed may be now and then exposed to gentle 

 showers, or otherwise watered according to the dryness and heat of the season. In order to give water, 

 without wetting the bed excessively or unequally, scatter a thin layer of short hay over the ridge ; and let 

 a small quantity of water be gently distributed, to all parts alike, from a rose-pan. Leave it to filter 

 through the hay, and cover the bed up with litter. In winter, the substitute for watering must be some 

 warm mulch from a dung-heap, laid over the dry litter ; the moisture evaporating from this will promote 

 the growth of the mushrooms. Excessive moisture is- not only apt to destroy the spawn, but it debases 

 the flower of such fungi as can be produced under it. It is also supposed to render the salutary sorts less 

 so, and to make the unwholesome kinds more acrimonious." 



3462. mcol says, " When the spawn is fully formed, give the bed two or three hearty waterings, in 

 order to set it a growing ; for, otherwise, it will lie dormant, and show no symptom of vegetation. Give 

 just as much water (but by no means at once) as will fairly reach to the bottom of all the materials, and 

 afterwards keep the bed in a state neither wet nor dry, but rather inclining to the latter, this being the 

 safe side to err on, as it is more easy to make it damp than to dry it. When a bed has been, as it were, 

 tired of producing, I have sometimes desisted from watering for several months ; then by examination I 

 have fcxund a new net of spawn formed all over the surface, the threads being deep-rooted, even to the 



