Vol. XXXIX. No. 36. ( 
Whole No. 1597. C 
NEW YORK, SEPT. 4, 1880. 
j Price Five Cents. 
\ $2.00 Peb Year. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by the Bural New-Yorker, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
lortiraltaral. 
MUSHROOM CULTURE IN THE CAVES AT 
PARIS. 
But little progress has yet been made in the | 
culture of mushrooms in the United States, the 
demand being limited, in part from a want of 
knowledge of the edible value of mushrooms, 
and in part from their high price. Mushrooms 
are grown in the vicinity of New York by a 
few private families and a few market gar¬ 
deners who supply them direct to the leading 
hotels, restaurants and club houses, but the 
greater proportion of those consumed in the 
United Slates are imported from France in 
sealed tins. 
In the cultivation in the United States the 
first object is to obtain some convenient 
place of equable temperature, light being un¬ 
necessary, where the beds may be placed and 
the work carried on. In choosing such a 
place a dry, clean cellar may be used or part of 
a shed, if in Summer on the north side, if in 
Winter, where it can be kept warmed, the ob¬ 
ject being to preserve the temperature and in¬ 
close the beds from the sudden changes of 
temperature. Perhaps the best plan of all is to 
construct a place under ground as" nearly re" 
8embling a cave a3 possible, the moisture and 
temperature of caves being f.-und to answer 
the nearest the requirements of their cultivation. 
In the preparation of the manure great care 
and study are required that there be not too 
much or too little heat. When ready, the beds 
are made in rows some 20 to 24 inches high 
and wide, and covered with sifted earth. The 
spawn is then placed in them. 
The spawn used in the United States is that 
obtained at the seed stores, in the shape of 
bricks. The bricks are broken into pieces the 
size of hickory nuts, and placed in holes made 
by a dibble, some six inches apart each way. 
In three or four weeks the spawn will have 
covered the bed, and in a few weeks the mush¬ 
rooms will be large enough to pick, and 
the beds will last from four to six months. 
The industry is one in which there is a promis¬ 
ing return for the outlay in its development in 
the United States. 
Much the greater part of the mushroom pro¬ 
duct which goes to sup¬ 
ply the markets of the 
world comes from aban¬ 
doned portions of the 
stone and plaster quarries 
under the suburbs of 
Paris, and at other places 
in France. In the depart¬ 
ment of the Seine alone, 
in which Paris is situated, 
are some 8,000 stone 
quarries, the abandoued 
parts of which are used by 
some 250 growers, produ¬ 
cing, on an estimate, 25 
tons of mushrooms dally, 
or to the valuo of $3,000,- 
000 per annum. 
The cultivation of the 
mushroom in these caves, 
is an interesting example 
of what may be accom¬ 
plished whore skill and 
industry are given to the 
work, although the nat¬ 
ural resources for its 
prosecutiou are of - the 
most meager character. 
These caves are from 25 
to 150 feet below the Bur- 
face and are entered 
through pit holes by 
climbing down a ladder 
made by thrusting rounds 
through a pole fixed 
upright, as shown in 
our illustration, fig. 270. 
Our illustrations we have reproduced from 
Mr. Robinson’s excellent work entitled the 
‘ Parks and Gardens of Paris,” published by 
McMilliau & Co., of London, England. 
At the bottom of these pits or entrances the 
passages radiate in different directions to the 
caves. At convenient points piles of manure 
and siftings from the debris of the stone cut¬ 
tings are piled and undergo preparation 
for the beds. When in proper condition, the 
beds—some 20 inches in depth—are placed in 
rows all over the bottom of the cave, with 
just a narrow passage between to facilitate 
the work of gathering. Figure 377, shows the 
appearance of one of the most extensive 
caves, with rows of beds and the dots of mush¬ 
rooms. New beds are continually in prepara¬ 
tion to take the place of the exhausted ones, 
and the cropping goes on uninterruptedly. 
filled with earth. The beds continue to bear 
from 40 to 00 days, those in the high-roofed 
caveB bearing longest. After some years of 
continuous use the mushroom grows tired of 
the cave and a kind of disease called ” La 
Mollc ” makes its appearance, when the cave 
is entirely cleaned and loft a year or two to re¬ 
cover its normal condition. Four kinds of 
mushrooms are grown: 1, the small white with 
cap from £ inch to 1 5-8 inch in diameter 
and 6tem two inches long ; 2, the large white 
three inches in diameter, with short stem; S, 
the cream-colored stem two inches long and 
cap two inches to 2j> inches in diameter ; 4, the 
gray, the cap sometimes measuring as much 
as 13 inches in diameter. 
The price of mushrooms averages about 
$12.50 per hundred weight, and they are mostly 
handled by agents. Large amounts are pre¬ 
served by drying, desiccating, grating to pow¬ 
der, bottling in oil and in tins, Figure 272 rep¬ 
resents the appearance of mushrooms as ready 
for market. 
THE EDIBLE MUSHROOM.-(Agaricus 
campestris.) 
PETER B. MEAD. 
ENTRANCE TO CAVES. — PIG. 27G. 
The general practice in obtainiug spawn is 
to nse so much of an entire fresh bed when 
it just begins to show the growth, as is nec¬ 
essary each day, which gives a product several 
days earlier than when the dry dormant 
spawn is used. The shafts or openings to the 
surface are made numerous enough to give 
perfect ventilation both for the health of the 
mushroom and of the workmen. Strong 
drafts and sudden changes of temperature are 
guarded against by trap-doors. 
The mushrooms are gathered daily at a very 
early hour in the morning, when the mush¬ 
rooms large enough for rise are seized and 
given a slight twist to clear them from con¬ 
tact with ntiy others not fully grown, and re¬ 
moved with the roots entire, the holes being 
Is calling the Agaricus campestris the edible 
mushroom it is not meant that there are not 
other edible kinds, for there are several, and 
some even more esleemed than this by connois¬ 
seurs. My object, however, is not to discuss 
species, but to give a few simple directions for 
growing the kind almost exclusively known 
among us as the edible mushroom. 
There is supposed to be much mystery as¬ 
sociated with the cultivation of the mushroom; 
bat U becomes quite a simple affair when 
understood. As in everything else, success 
will be more certain and greater where the 
proper conditions and materials are at com¬ 
mand and properly used. I prefer droppings 
from horses that are kept chiefly on short 
feed, but others may be used where these can¬ 
not be had. Collect the droppings daily until 
you have enough for the size of your bed. 
which may be three or four feet wide and as 
long as you please. The straw should be 
shaken out and the droppings kept under 
cover or in some way protected from rain. Do 
VIEW IN MUSHROOM CAVES,-Fig. 277. 
not put them in a large heap till you get 
enough for your bed, when they should be 
well mixed together and put in a heap to fer¬ 
ment. If they should have become quite dry, 
moisten them very lightly with warm water. 
The larger the heap the sooner fermentation 
will begin. 
As soon as the heap has become warm 
(which may be learned by thrusting a stick 
into it), turn it over with a fork, mixing the 
parts well together. Repeat the turning every 
three or four days until the mass becomes 
homogeneous, or alike all the way through, 
when it is ready for the bed. The rank heat 
must be got rid of, which will be in two or 
three weeks, or even more, according to the 
weather. 
In the Summer and early Fall the bed may 
be made out-of-doors under a shed or in a hot¬ 
bed frame, or in almost any place where it 
may be protected from rains, if only by a tem¬ 
porary ahed or loose boards. In the Winter 
it may be made in a dry cellar, or under a 
table in the greenhouse, or even on the table. 
Determine the size of your bed aud then 
spread the droppings three or four inches 
thick and beat them down firmly with the fork 
or spade. Repeat the layers and the beating 
till the bed is from one and a half to two feet 
high, and even less will do in experienced 
hands. The objeet is to have the bed equally 
firm throughout. In the open air in the Fall 
the bed need not be more than twelve or fif¬ 
teen inches high. Let the bed remain for a 
couple of days. If the heat is then from 65 o 
to 75 3 , the bed may be spawned. If more 
than this yon must wait, or reduce the heat by 
opening holes in the bed. 
Be sure that your spawn is good. English 
and American spawn is usually in bricks 
while the French is generally in straw. All 
are good. Break the spawn into pieces about 
the size of hickory nuts and insert the pieces 
from an inch and a half to two inches deep, 
and five or six inches aoart. Next cover the 
bed with about two inches of good loamy soil 
and on the top of this put from six to twelve 
inches of clean straw or hay. Under a Green¬ 
house table an inch or so of covering will do 
or even none at all; and where the hot water 
pipes arc contiguous to the bed I simply make 
it up of loam and thoroughly decayed manure. 
It is usually three or 
lour weeks before the 
mushrooms appear, and 
sometimes longer. If 
the bed should become 
prematurely dormaut, its 
activity may generally 
be renewed by the appli¬ 
cation of pretty warm 
water through the rose 
of a watering pot. It 
should be watered in this 
w ay, in fact, as often as 
it becomes dry, or it will 
cease to bear. The mush¬ 
rooms are best in their 
button state. 
It may not be out of 
place to add that the 
edible mushroom may 
be best known by its 
rose-coiored gills. All 
others, and especially all 
that have an offensive 
odor, should be avoided. 
For tbe best method of 
cookiug liefer the read¬ 
er to Emily Maple who 
has charge of the domes¬ 
tic department of the 
Rural. I prefer them 
stewed. They are used 
broiled, stewed, in soups, 
etc. 
I have given my own 
method, but some mix 
loam with the manure, 
