CULTUEE OF MUSHROOMS. 



2i9 



horses, it may he stated at once that any manure or 

 compoimd of sweepings or ruhhish that will grow 

 good Mushrooms in beds, will grow them in pots, 

 boxes, baskets, or other portable contrivances. 

 But with weaker and inferior material to start with, 

 it can hardly be expected that so many nor so fine 

 INIushrooms will be gathered from a given area. 

 AVhatever sort of material be used, the mode of pro- 

 cedure, and the necessity of firmness and solidity^ 

 will be A^ery much the 

 same. Here, then, we have 

 say an eight-inch pot 

 charged with JMushroom- 

 growing - materials ; the 

 next step, and in a sense 

 the first, in the portable 

 culture of the jNIushroom, 

 is to place it in Mushroom- 

 growing conditions. The 

 French cook who was re- 

 ported to have grown his 

 buttons, that is, his small 

 Mushrooms, in his kitchen 

 drawer, would doubtless, 

 in his anxiety for his 



favourite flavour and gar- 

 nish, whip the charged 

 -pot into his hot closet, and 

 so warm up and quicken 

 the mycelium, as to force 

 the Mushrooms forth with 

 a rush. Well, 

 if he did not 

 exceed a tem- 

 perature of 7o^ 

 probably no 

 harm would be 

 done, and much 

 time saved. 

 But the best way would be 

 to plunge these pots to the 



Mushrooms in a Pot. 



rim in a bed of fermenting 



manure, at a temj)erature of 70° or so, till the spawn 

 had covered the surface of the soil with white threads ; 

 these should be rubbed off as they give the surface 

 a white appearance, as otherwise the strength of the 

 spawn will run to threads, not to Mushrooms. The 

 pots may continue in a temperature of 66° till small 

 Mushrooms form, and can then be removed into a 

 sitting-room or other window, so that their growtli 

 may be watched. As the ordinary living-room is 

 mostly too dry for the well-doing of INIushrooms, it is 

 a good plan to cover them with a bell-glass or cloche, 

 to keep up a moist atmosphere for the IMushrooms. 

 The trouble is not greater than in the case of Ferns 

 grown under similar conditions. The interest of 



watching the development of the pure white fimgus 

 is equally great, and the produce is assuredly more 

 useful. 



But such troublesome expedients are only needed 

 in what may be called the parlour- window culture 

 of the JMushroom. If content to reap the sweet pro- 

 duce only, without having the additional pleasure 

 of seeing it growing, the Mushroom pots, boxes, 

 or pans may be set anywhere, in the dark, on a 

 shelf, or on the floor,- and 

 they will need but little 

 attention till the produce 

 is fit to gather. They may 

 also be grown in rooms 

 with safety, with the sur- 

 face covered with green 

 moss, and it is one of the 

 most pleasing sights in 

 horticultural pursuits to 

 see the rising cluster of 

 Mushrooms in the centre 

 of the pot fii'st upheave, 

 and finally throw off their 

 coverlet of moss, and stand 

 out in all their freshness 

 and purity. Besides, the 

 Mushroom pot or pan may 

 stand in a warm room or 

 shelf from the first, with- 

 out any harm, if the sur- 

 face is covered either with 

 moss or cocoa-nut fibre re- 

 fuse ; or they might even 

 be planted with some of 

 the more dwarf Club 

 Mosses or Lycopodiums, 

 such as the golden or silver 

 varieties of " SelagincUa 

 denticulata. But apart 

 from the fanc}^ and orna- 

 mental portable culture 

 of the Mushroom, it may 

 readily be made as profitable as any other method, 

 and it , brings a supply of this much -coveted 

 luxury, good fresh ^Mushrooms, within reach of all 

 classes and conditions of men ; while even those 

 who have means of cultivating ^Mushrooms in 

 permanent beds out of doors, or real ^Mushroom 

 houses, might often supplement these by hxmying a 

 few jMushrooms in more quickly, and to fill up or 

 prevent those awkward gaps that are so apt to 

 occur between the exhaustion of one series of beds 

 and the incoming of another. In the portable cul- 

 ture of the jMushroom for utility, far larger pots, 

 pans, and boxes or baskets are used. Old packing 

 or grocer's boxes of any kind, especially the stronger 



