CHAPTER X. 
MUSHROOM SPAWN. 
What is mushroom spawn ? Is it a seed or a root ? 
Do you plant it or sow it, or how do you prepare it ? are 
some of the questions asked me now and again. To the 
general public there seems to be some great mystery sur¬ 
rounding this spawn question ; in fact, it appears to be 
the chief enigma connected with mushroom-growing. 
Now, the truth is, there is no mystery at all about the 
matter. What practical mushroom growers call spawn, 
botanists term mycelium. 
The spawn is the true mushroom plant and permeates 
the ground, manure, or other material in which it may 
be growing; and what we know as mushrooms is the 
fruit of the mushroom plant. The spawn is represented 
by a delicate white mold-like network of whitish threads 
which traverse the soil or manure, binder favorable 
circumstances it grows and spreads rapidly, and in due 
time produces fruit, or mushrooms as we call them. 
The mushrooms bear myriads of spores which are analo¬ 
gous to seeds, and these spores become diffused in the 
atmosphere and fall upon the ground. It is reasonable 
to suppose that they are the origin of the spawn which 
produces the natural mushrooms in the fields, also the 
spawn we find in manure heaps. But we never have 
been able to produce spawn artificially from spores, or 
in other words, mushrooms have never been grown by 
man, so far as I can find any authentic record, from 
•'•'seed.” How, then, do we get the spawn ? By propa¬ 
gation by division. We take the mushroom plant or 
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