me  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
1041 
Horticultural  Notes 
A  Brief  Story  of  Mushroom  Growing 
I  am  very  much  interested  in  the  rais¬ 
ing  of  mush.ooms,  and  would  like  to  start 
in,  as  I  believe  I  am  well  located,  as  far 
as  markets  are  concerned,  and  have  the 
room  to  do  the  work.  I  have  an  old  barn 
which  I  could  use  to  start  with,  and 
would  like  such  information  regarding  the 
cultivation  of  mushrooms  and  the  approx¬ 
imate  cost  and  profits.  m.  J. 
Figuring  Expenses. — Answering  M. 
J.’s  last  question,  it  is  rather  easy  to  fig¬ 
ure  the  cost  of  starting  the  mushroom 
business,  but  it  is  much  more  difficult  to 
figure  the  profit  than  it  is  for  the  ordi¬ 
nary  individual  to  figure  his  income  tax 
without  assistance.  One  ton  of  manure 
will  fill  approximately  90  sq.  ft.  of  bench. 
To  this  should  be  added  200  lbs.  of  soil 
while  the  manure  is  being  composted, 
and  after  the  beds  are  spawned  they  must 
be  covered  with  1  in.  of  soil ;  90  sq.  ft. 
of  bench  will  require  about  two  bottles 
of  spawn,  costing  75  cents  per  bottle. 
Possibly  10  to  30  3-lb.  baskets  will  be  re¬ 
quired  to  ship  the  crop,  costing  5  cents 
each.  Add  what  you  may  estimate  for 
labor,  water  and  heat,  and  you  can  figure 
the  cost  of  each  90  sq.  ft.  This  area  may 
produce  75  lbs.  of  mushrooms.  Unfavor¬ 
able  conditions  may  cut  it  very  much 
lower,  and  favorable  conditions  may  in¬ 
crease  the  amount  somewhat.  Prices  this 
season  have  varied  from  25  to  50c  per  lb. 
That  is  the  nearest  possible  estimate  I 
could  make  on  the  returns. 
Diseases. — There  are  two  diseases 
making  heavy  inroads  into  mushroom  pro¬ 
duction  at  present.  The  most  dangerous 
is  an  irregular  white  fungus  growth  that 
ofttimes  begins  showing  on  the  beds  be¬ 
fore  the  mushrooms  appear,  and  if  not 
removed  promptly  and  carefully,  in  a 
short  time  it  will  overrun  the  entire  house 
and  will  completely  destroy  the  crop. 
Some  growers  advocate  burning  the  fun¬ 
gus  with  gasoline,  and  then  removing  it 
carefully  to  the  furnace ;  others  remove 
it  by  digging  or  picking  it  off  the  beds 
and  burning  it.  The  other  trouble  is  large, 
irregular  black  spots  that  form  on  the 
mushrooms,  causing  them  to  decay  very 
rapidly  after  they  are  removed  from  the 
beds.  This  black  spot  is  sometimes 
caused  by  water  applied  to  the  beds  when 
the  mushrooms  are  about  half  grown,  but 
we  find  it  at  this  season  on  beds  that  have 
not  been  watered  for  several  weeks.  Bac¬ 
teriologists  from  State  College  and  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  in  Washing¬ 
ton  are  working  on  these  diseases.  We 
have  not  had  any  relief  suggested  up  to 
the  present  time. 
Cleaning  Up. — It  is  very  necessary 
that  the  old  manure  and  soil  is  entirely 
removed  from  the  house  and  the  house 
cleaned  out  entirely.  Then  the  house 
should  be  fumigated  by  burning  sulphur 
and  sprinkling  with  formaldehyde.  The 
soil  for  casing  the  beds  should  never  be 
taken  from  a  field  in  which  the  old  ma¬ 
nure  has  been  spread  on  the  surface. 
Preparing  Manure. — Fresh  horse  ma¬ 
nure  is  procured  from  the  large  cities  in 
carload  lots,  and  put  in  piles  about  4  ft. 
deep.  If  it  is  dry  when  it  is  unloaded, 
water  thoroughly  as  it  is  piled  up ;  this 
will  obviate  firefang  to  a  considerable  ex¬ 
tent.  After  laying  in  the  piles  one  week 
it  should  be  turned  around  and  shaken 
up,  and  plenty  of  water  applied  wherever 
it  is  dry.  After  leveling  the  piles  off, 
add  about  4  to  6  in.  of  soil  on  top.  Re¬ 
peat  this  process  four  times.  If  the 
weather  is  very  hot,  it  is  best  to  turn  the 
manure  five  times,  and  four  times  in 
Winter ;  when  the  weather  is  very  cold, 
three  times  is  sufficient.  A  layer  of  soil 
should  be  added  each  time  the  pile  is 
turned,  and  sufficient  water  used  to  keep 
the  entire  material  in  a  moist  condition, 
but  not  soggy.  After  four  weeks  the  ma¬ 
nure  is  put  in  the  bench  6  to  8  in.  deep 
and  tramped  solid.  The  surface  of  the 
bed  should  be  made  as  level  as  possible 
and  may  be  hammered  down  very  firmly 
with  a  wooden  paddle.  As  soon  as  the 
house  is  filled,  close  the  ventilators,  and 
start  the  heater  if  the  weather  is  cold, 
until  the  temperature  of  the  manure  in 
the  beds  rises  to  100  degrees  or  over. 
Then  open  the  ventilators  and  allow  it  to 
cool  off  to  80  degrees,  at  which  tempera¬ 
ture  it  is  ready  to  spawn. 
Spawning. — If  the  surface  of  the  bed 
appears  to  be  very  dry,  sprinkle  lightly 
with  water  six  to  eight  hours  before 
spawning.  The  manure  should  be  moist, 
but  not  soggy  wet.  The  spawn  is  made 
in  quart  milk  bottles,  and  each  quart, 
after  being  broken  out  of  the  bottle, 
should  be  broken  into  about  40  uniform 
pieces.  The  spawn  should  be  planted  in 
the  beds  10  by  12  or  11  by  12  in.  apart. 
A  small  portion  of  the  manure  is  raised 
up,  the  spawn  inserted  in  1  in.  to  1%  in. 
under  the  surface,  the  manure  is  pushed 
back  to  place,  and  as  soon  as  the  bed  is 
spawned  it  should  be  hammered  down 
firmly  with  a  board.  About  S1/^  weeks 
after  the  spawn  is  planted  1  in.  of  soil 
should  be  spread  evenly  over  the  surface 
of  the  manure.  This  soil  should  be  moist, 
and  should  be  hammered  down  firmly  in 
the  same  manner  that,  the  manure  was 
firmed. 
Care  of  Beds. — The  temperature 
the  house  from  the  time  that  the  spawn 
was  planted  until  the  first  mushrooms 
appear,  should  be  70  degrees.  After  the 
mushrooms  begin  coming  through  the 
surface  lower  the  temperature  to  60  de¬ 
grees.  If  the  crop  starts  coming  very 
heavy,  it  is  best  to  lower  the  temperature 
to  56  degrees.  The  first  water  after  cas¬ 
ing  the  beds  should  be  applied  when  the 
first  mushrooms  are  about  the  size  of 
peas.  Water  very  carefully,  or  this  first 
crop  will  be  injured  severely.  It  pays  big  to 
make  several  light  waterings,  until  1  in. 
of  the  soil  is  moist  the  entire  way 
through.  If  the  mushrooms  are  very 
large  when  the  beds  are  watered  they  will 
be  very  likely  discolored  by  brown  spots. 
They  should  be  picked  by  a  twisting  mo¬ 
tion,  pressing  downwards.  It  will  sepa¬ 
rate  them  from  the  bed  without  bringing 
up  a  large  clump  of  roots  and  soil.  Pick 
them  just  before  the  veil  breaks  open 
underneath.  The  regular  mushroom  bas¬ 
ket  holds  3  lbs.  when  filled,  and  when 
packed  they  are  usually  graded  into  three 
or  four  sizes,  large,  medium  and  small. 
Arrangement  of  Building. — M.  J. 
wishes  to  use  an  old  barn  at  the  start. 
This  building  should  have  double  walls 
packed  with  5  or  6  in.  of  sawdust  or 
planer  shavings,  unless  the  walls  are 
heavy  stone.  The  upper  portion  will 
have  to  be  double  with  packing,  and  the 
top  also.  Several  ventilators  will  have 
to  extend  from  the  lower  portion  in  which 
the  mushrooms  are  grown  into  the  upper 
portion  of  the  building,  or  clear  through 
to  the  roof.  These  ventilators  can  be  ar¬ 
ranged  so  that  they  can  be  closed  when 
necessary.  The  beds  are  usually  made  6 
ft.  wide  and  one  above  the  other,  with  a 
space  of  14  in.  from  the  top  of  the  one 
bed  to  the  bottom  of  the  next  one.  The 
beds  should  have  8-in.  sideboards,  which 
will  be  sufficient  depth  to  contain  the  ma¬ 
nure  and  soil.  There  may  be  as  many 
beds  one  above  the  other  as  the  height 
of  the  building  and  the  convenience  of 
operation  permits.  elmer  j.  weaver. 
Carbon  Dioxide  for  Plants 
Some  weeks  ago  we  had  a  little  discus¬ 
sion  of  the  use  of  carbon  dioxide  in  stim¬ 
ulating  the  growth  of  plants.  It  appears 
that  considerable  work  is  being  done 
along  this  line,  and  some  striking  results 
have  been  obtained.  No  one  seems  *0 
know  yet  just  what  effect  the  gas  has 
upon  plant  life,  but  experiments  in  the 
greenhouse  and  in  a  small  way  in  gar¬ 
den  culture  seems  to  show  that  there  is 
something  in  the  methods.  We  under¬ 
stand  that  German  scientists  are  experi¬ 
menting  thoroughly  with  this  plan.  In 
some  cases  the  gases  are  taken  from  fac¬ 
tory  chimneys  and  driven  through  tile 
laid  in  the  soil  near  the  roots  of  the 
plants.  Some  good  results  have  been  ob¬ 
tained  in  this  way,  and  it  seems  evident 
that  these  bases  contain  elements  which 
actually  *do  stimulate  the  grpwth  of 
plants.  Plans  are  being  made  to  work 
this  method  out  practically  in  green¬ 
house  work,  and  considerable  has  already 
been  done  along  that  line  in  this  country. 
It  is  not  impossible  in  the  future  that  the 
gases  from  factory  chimneys  will  be  used 
freely  in  this  way,  and  that  sulphate  of 
ammonia  and  other  gases  known  to  be 
present  in  the  smoke  and  fumes  from  fac¬ 
tory  chimneys  will  find  a  use. 
Turn  ALL  Your  Grain 
into  Money  with,  a 
y  . 
. . 
THRESHER. 
Make  this  harvest  mean  a  full  profit. 
Clean  threshing — and  threshing  at  the  right 
time — will  add  many  dollars  to  your  grain 
income. 
Instead  of  depending  on  a  custom 
thresher,  with  all  the  uncertainties,  make 
yourself  independent  by  owning  your  own 
individual  Gray  Line  Thresher.  It  threshes 
all  grains,  beans  and  peas  CLEAN — makes 
Threshing  a  simple  chore  that  you  can  do 
when  the  grain  is  just  right,  and  when 
you  are  ready. 
Gray  Line  Threshers  are  light,  compact, 
simple  and  require  little  power.  Five  sizes, 
capacities  30  to  120  bu.  oats  per  hour. 
Use  coupon  below  to  secure  catalog  and 
low  price  list. 
A.  W.  Gray’s  Sons,  Inc.,  Poultney,  Vt» 
Factory  at  Middletown  Springs,  Vt. 
Gray  Line  Quality 
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Every  machine  is 
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Gray  Line  Wood 
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“C.C.C.”  Benzoate  of  Soda  is  a  harmless,  ap¬ 
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Packing  House  News 
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