August 24,1882.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 169 
in the morning when the straw is removed the tempe¬ 
rature is neither many degrees below or above 50 Q , it 
will be safe. The instrument is no doubt a useful 
guide for the experienced, but it is certain to be dis¬ 
pensed with after a few crops have been gathered. 
Mushrooms will form and grow at a temperature of 
40° when the bed is permeated with strong spawn; 
but their movement is slow, and a mean ranging from 
10° or 15° higher should, if possible, be maintained. 
WATERING MUSHROOM BEDS. 
During bright weather in autumn, spring, and espe¬ 
cially early summer, when the beds need little cover¬ 
ing, they often require, especially those that are bear¬ 
ing heavily, frequent supplies of water. It is of the 
greatest importance that the soil is never permitted to 
become dry, and water must be given as often as is 
needed in quantity sufficient to prevent this. The 
time chosen for applying water should be early in the 
afternoon of a sunny day, The covering on the beds 
will be then quite warm, and on this, not under it, the 
water must be sprinkled in sufficient quantity to per¬ 
colate through it and gradually moisten the soil. Imme¬ 
diately after watering the beds they should be covered 
with mats to prevent the moisture evaporating, and 
the vapour that will be generated will result in a cool 
humid atmosphere under the mats and straw precisely 
conducive to the growth of Mushrooms, the mats to be 
removed in the morning. Those who are not experi¬ 
enced in the method of culture in question cannot 
understand that Mushrooms can be produced in summer 
on account of the heat, forgetting that by using sufficient 
straw, and sprinkling it, permitting at the same time 
free evaporation, that the beds may even be made too 
cold for the crop, on the same principle that ice-cold 
water can be produced under a tropical sun by envelop¬ 
ing the porous vessels in which it is stored with a 
medium that can be kept moist when the constant 
evaporation, with the ever-attendant lowering of tem¬ 
perature, produces the effect desired; still, as a rule, 
the crops are not profitable after the middle of June, as 
the Mushrooms, owing to the nitrogen they contain, 
speedily decay after being gathered in hot weather, 
and they can then no more be eaten with safety than 
meat can that is in a state of decomposition. If this 
simple fact were impressed on the minds of those 
Mushroom-consumers who do not always think before 
they eat there would be fewer records of injury result¬ 
ing from partaking too freely of this esculent. 
EXHAUSTED BEDS. 
Mushroom beds partially exhausted by heavy and 
continuous bearing may be in some measure renovated 
by a free application of liquid manure, sufficient being 
given at a temperature of 100° to penetrate the entire 
mass of manure. The drainings from a manure heap 
are good for this purpose diluted until the liquid is of 
the colour of pale ale, 1 or 2 ozs. of common salt 
being added to each gallon. When the above tank 
liquid manure cannot be had perfectly clear soot water 
of the colour indicated, with salt as directed, may be 
advantageously applied, or an ounce of sulphate of 
ammonia dissolved in four gallons of water will be 
found equally beneficial. These stimulants are often 
of great value to beds in private gardens where a steady 
and prolonged supply of Mushrooms has to be main¬ 
tained ; but when beds in the open air are once fairly 
exhausted by heavy bearing they can seldom be profit¬ 
ably renovated by the use of stimulants. 
Balt has been recommended, and lest there be any 
timid readers who may fear to use it at the strength 
named, they may take courage from the fact that Mr. 
Barter regularly uses it at the rate of a quarter of a 
pound to a gallon of water, but applied, be it remem¬ 
bered, over the straw covering. So beneficial is salt to 
Mushroom beds that it is used regularly whenever 
bearing beds require watering, and it was found just 
as the quantity was increased so the crops were 
improved, and the Mushrooms were rendered more 
white and fleshy. 
GATHERING. MUSHROOMS. 
Different opinions are held by cultivators relative to 
the best method of gathering Mushrooms. Some advo¬ 
cate and practise cutting them, removing the stems a 
few days afterwards when they can be withdrawn easily; 
others pull them up, but usually do it in a very cautious 
manner as if afraid of disturbing the beds and arrest¬ 
ing the growth of further produce. When the writer 
Fig. 28—Fulling v. Cutting Mushrooms. 
received his first lessons in Mushroom culture thirty- 
five years ago it was regarded as little short of criminal 
to pull Mushrooms, the orthodox plan being to cut 
them. If the old practitioners who gathered the crops 
so tenderly and almost in fear and trembling lest no 
others should follow, could see the manner in which 
Mushrooms are gathered for market they would scarcely 
believe their own eyes. Not only are they torn 
ruthlessly from the beds, but the roots - are dug out if 
they are not sufficiently broken in the process of pull¬ 
ing. It is usual to have two baskets, the large 
Mushrooms being placed in one and the “ buttons in 
the other, the soil being knocked off the roots as the 
work proceeds. When the stems are separated, as 
many are, close on the surface of the bed, leaving the 
stump undisturbed in the soil, this stump is at once 
scooped out with a knife, leaving a round open cavity 
in which a walnut might be placed. This to the un¬ 
initiated appears barbarous work ; it looks like spoiling 
the beds and preventing the production of successional 
crops. That it has not that effect is certain, or those 
to whom every pound of Mushrooms is an object would 
not adopt it. The result of the digging-out process is 
the direct opposite of that indicated. Instead of impair- 
