MUSHROOMS:How to Grow Them. 

A PRACTICAL TREATISEONMushroom Culture for Profit and Pleasure. 

BYWILLIAM FALCONER. 

ILLUSTRATED. 

NEW YORK, ORANGE JUDD CO. 1892. 

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by theORANGE JUDD COMPANY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

PREFACE

Mushrooms and their extensive and profitable culture should concernevery one. For home consumption they are a healthful and grateful food, and for market, when successfully grown, they become a most profitablecrop. We can have in America the best market in the world for freshmushrooms; the demand for them is increasing, and the supply has alwaysbeen inadequate. The price for them here is more than double that paidin any other country, and we have no fear of foreign competition, forall attempts, so far, to import fresh mushrooms from Europe have beenunsuccessful. 

In the most prosperous and progressive of all countries, with apopulation of nearly seventy millions of people alert to everyprofitable, legitimate business, mushroom-growing, one of the simplestand most remunerative of industries, is almost unknown. The marketgrower already engaged in growing mushrooms appreciates his situationand zealously guards his methods of cultivation from the public. Thisonly incites interest and inquisitiveness, and the people are becomingalive to the fact that there is money in mushrooms and an earnest demandhas been created for information about growing them. 

The raising of mushrooms is within the reach of nearly every one. Goodmaterials to work with and careful attention to all practical detailsshould give good returns. The industry is one in which women andchildren can take part as well as men. It furnishes indoor employment inwinter, and there is very little hard labor attached to it, while it canbe made subsidiary to almost any other business, and even a recreationas well as a source of profit. 

In this book the endeavor has been, even at the risk of repetition, tomake the best methods as plain as possible. The facts herein presentedare the results of my own practical experience and observation, togetherwith those obtained by extensive reading, travel and correspondence. 

To Mr. Charles A. Dana, the proprietor of the Dosoris mushroom cellarsand estate, I am greatly indebted for opportunities to prepare thisbook. For the past eight years everything has been unstintedly placed atmy disposal by him to grow mushrooms in every way I wished, and toexperiment to my heart's content. 

To Mr. William Robinson, editor of _The Garden_, London, I am especiallyindebted for many courtesies--permission to quote from _The Garden_, "Parks and Gardens of Paris, " and his other works, and to illustrate thechapters in this book on Mushroom-growing in the London market gardensand the Paris caves, with the original beautiful plates from his ownbooks. 

The recipes given in the chapter on Cooking Mushrooms, except thoseprepared for this work by Mrs. Ammersley, although based on the onesgiven by Mr. Robinson, have been considerably modified by me andrepeatedly used in my own family. 

My thanks are also due to Mr. John F. Barter, of London, the largestgrower of mushrooms in England, for information given me regarding hissystem of cultivation; to Mr. John G. Gardner, of Jobstown, N. J. , oneof the most noted growers for market in this country, for facilitiesallowed me to examine his method of raising mushrooms; and to Messrs. A. H. Withington, Samuel Henshaw, George Grant, John Cullen, and othersuccessful growers for assistance kindly rendered. 

 WILLIAM FALCONER. 

 DOSORIS, L. I. , 1891. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. --THOSE WHO SHOULD GROW MUSHROOMS 9

 Market Gardeners-- Florists-- Private Gardeners-- Village People and Suburban Residents-- Farmers. 

CHAPTER II. --GROWING MUSHROOMS IN CELLARS 15

 Underground Cellars-- In Dwelling House-- Mr. Gardner's Method-- Mr. Denton's Method-- Mr. Van Siclen's Method-- The Dosoris Mushroom Cellar. 

CHAPTER III. --GROWING MUSHROOMS IN MUSHROOM HOUSES 34

 Building the House-- Mrs. Osborne's Mushroom House-- Interior Arrangement of Mushroom Houses-- Mr. Samuel Henshaw's Mushroom House. 

CHAPTER IV. --GROWING MUSHROOMS IN SHEDS 39

 The Temperature of Interior of the Bed-- Shelf Beds-- The Use of the Term Shed. 

CHAPTER V. --GROWING MUSHROOMS IN GREENHOUSES 41

 Cool Greenhouses-- On Greenhouse Benches-- In Frames in the Greenhouses-- Orchard Houses-- Under Greenhouse Benches-- Among Other Plants on Greenhouse Benches-- Growing Mushrooms in Rose Houses-- Drip from the Benches-- Ammonia Arising. 

CHAPTER VI. --GROWING MUSHROOMS IN THE FIELDS 54

 Mushrooms often appear Spontaneously-- Wild Mushrooms-- Mr. Henshaw's Plan-- Brick Spawn in Pastures. 

CHAPTER VII. --MANURE FOR MUSHROOM BEDS 57

 Horse Manure-- Fresher the Better-- Manure of Mules-- Cellar Manure-- City Stable Manure-- Baled Manure-- Cow Manure-- German Peat Moss Stable Manure for Mushroom Beds-- Sawdust Stable Manure for Mushroom Beds-- Tree Leaves-- Spent Hops. 

CHAPTER VIII. --PREPARATION OF THE MANURE 69

 Preparing out of Doors-- Warm Sunshine-- Fire-fang-- Guard Against Over Moistening-- The Proper Condition of the Manure-- Loam and Manure Mixed. 

CHAPTER IX. --MAKING UP THE MUSHROOM BEDS 74

 The Thickness of the Beds-- Shape of the Beds-- Bottom-heat Thermometers-- The Proper Temperature-- Too High Temperature-- Keep the House at 55°. 

CHAPTER X. --MUSHROOM SPAWN 78

 What is Mushroom Spawn?-- The Mushroom Plant-- Spawn Obtained at any Seed Store-- Imported from Europe-- The Great Mushroom-growing Center of the Country-- English Spawn-- Mill-track Mushroom Spawn-- Flake or French Spawn-- Virgin Spawn-- How to Keep Spawn-- New Versus Old Spawn-- How to Distinguish Good from Poor Spawn-- American-made Spawn-- How to make Brick Spawn-- How to make French (flake) Spawn-- Making French Virgin Spawn-- A Second Method-- Third Method-- Relative Merits of Flake and Brick Spawn. 

CHAPTER XI. --SPAWNING THE BEDS 96

 Preparing the Spawn-- Steeped Spawn-- Flake Spawn-- Transplanting Working Spawn. 

CHAPTER XII. --LOAM FOR THE BEDS 100

 Cavities in the Surface of Beds-- The Best Kind of Loam-- Common Loam-- Ordinary Garden Soil-- Roadside Dirt-- Sandy Soil-- Peat Soil or Swamp Muck-- Heavy, Clayey Loam-- Loam Containing Old Manure. 

CHAPTER XIII. --EARTHING OVER THE BEDS 103

 Loam is Indispensable-- The Best Soil-- Proper Time to Case Beds-- Inserting the Spawn-- Sifting the Soil-- Firming the Soil-- Green Sods. 

CHAPTER XIV. --TOPDRESSING WITH LOAM 107

 Beds that are in Full Bearing-- Filling up the Holes-- Firming the Dressing to the Bed-- Beds in which Black Spot has Appeared. 

CHAPTER XV. --THE PROPER TEMPERATURE 109

 Covering the Beds with Hay-- A High Temperature-- In a Temperature of 50°-- In a Temperature of 55°-- Boxing Over the Bed. 

CHAPTER XVI. --WATERING MUSHROOM BEDS 111

 Artificially Heated Mushroom Houses-- Sprinkling Water over Mulching-- Watering Pots-- Manure Water-- Preparing Manure Water-- Common Salt-- Sprinkling the Floors-- Houses Heated by Smoke Flues-- Manure Steam for Moistening the Atmosphere. 

CHAPTER XVII. --GATHERING AND MARKETING MUSHROOMS 115

 When Mushrooms are Fit to Pick-- Picking-- The Advantages of Pulling over Cutting-- Pulled Mushrooms-- Gathering Field or Wild Mushrooms-- Marketing Mushrooms. 

CHAPTER XVIII. --RE-INVIGORATING OLD BEDS 120

 Worn Out Beds-- Spurts of Increased Fertility-- A Spent Mushroom Bed-- Living Spawn. 

CHAPTER XIX. --INSECT AND OTHER ENEMIES 122

 Maggots-- Black Spot-- Manure Flies-- Slugs-- "Bullet" or "Shot" Holes-- Wood Lice-- Mites-- Mice and Rats-- Toads-- Fogging Off-- Flock-- Cleaning the Mushroom Houses. 

CHAPTER XX. --GROWING MUSHROOMS IN RIDGES OUT OF DOORS AROUND LONDON 136

 Ridges in the Open Field-- Bed Making-- Manure Obtained from City Stables-- The Site for Beds-- Planting the Spawn-- Drenching Rains-- Russia Mats-- The First Beds-- The First Cutting-- Watering. 

CHAPTER XXI. --MUSHROOM GROWING IN THE PARIS CAVES 143

 Caves and Subterranean Passages-- The Manure Used-- Preparation of the Manure-- Making the Beds-- The Spawn-- Stratifying the Spawn-- Chips and Powder of Stone-- Earthing Over the Beds-- Temperature in High-roofed Caves-- When the Mushrooms are Gathered-- Proper Ventilation. 

CHAPTER XXII. --COOKING MUSHROOMS 150

 Baked Mushrooms-- Stewed Mushrooms-- Soyer's Breakfast Mushrooms-- Mushrooms à la Crême-- Curried Mushrooms-- Broiled Mushrooms-- Mushroom Soup-- Mushroom Stews-- Potted Mushrooms-- Gilbert's Breakfast Mushrooms-- Baked Mushrooms-- Mushrooms à la Casse, Tout-- Broiled Beefsteak and Mushrooms-- To Preserve Mushrooms-- Mushroom Powder-- To Dry Mushrooms-- Dried Mushrooms-- Mushroom Ketchup-- Pickled Mushrooms. 

ILLUSTRATIONS

Mushroom Cellar under a Barn, 16Boxed-up Frame with Straw Covering, 19Cross Section of the Dosoris Mushroom Cellar, 27Ground Plan of the Dosoris Cellar, 28Base-burning Water Heater, 32Vertical Section of Base-burning Water Heater, 32Mushroom House Built Against a North-facing Wall, 34Section of Mrs. Osborne's Mushroom House, 35Ground Plan of Mrs. Osborne's Mushroom House, 36Interior View of Mr. S. Henshaw's Mushroom House, 38Boxed Mushroom Bed under Greenhouse Bench, 41Mushrooms Grown on Greenhouse Benches, 43Wide Bed with Pathway Above, 44Mushrooms on Greenhouse Benches under Tomatoes, 45Mr. Wm. Wilson's Mushroom Beds, 51Mushroom Bed Built Flat upon the Ground, 52Ridged Mushroom Bed, 53Banked Bed against a Wall, 53Perspective View of the Dosoris Mushroom Cellar, 58Bale of German Peat Moss, 66Brick Spawn, 80Flake, or French Spawn, 82Brick Spawn Cut in Pieces for Planting, 97A Perfect Mushroom, 116Mushrooms Affected with Black Spot, 125A Flock-Diseased Mushroom, 133The Covered Ridges, 140In the Mushroom Caves of Paris, 147Gathering Mushrooms in the Paris Caves for Market, 149

MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 

CHAPTER I. 

THOSE WHO SHOULD GROW MUSHROOMS. 

=Market Gardeners. =--The mushroom is a highly prized article of foodwhich can be as easily grown as many other vegetable products of thesoil--and with as much pleasure and profit. Below it is shown, inparticular, that this peculiar plant is singularly well adapted to theconditions that surround many classes of persons, and by whom themushroom might become a standard crop for home use, the city market, orboth. It is directly in their line of business; is a winter crop, requiring their care when outdoor operations are at a standstill, andthey can most conveniently attend to growing mushrooms. They have themanure needed for their other crops, and they may well use it first fora mushroom crop. After having borne a crop of mushrooms it is thoroughlyrotted and in good condition for early spring crops; and for seed bedsof tomatoes, lettuces, cabbages, cauliflowers, and other vegetables, itis the best kind of manure. 

Years ago market gardening near New York in winter was carried on inrather a desultory way, and the supply of salads and other forcedvegetables was limited and mostly raised in hotbeds and other frames, and prices ran high. But of recent years our markets in winter havebeen so liberally supplied from the Southern States, that, in order tosave themselves, our market gardeners have been compelled to take up afresh line in their business, and renounce the winter frames in favor ofgreenhouses, and grow crops which many of them did not handle before. These greenhouses are mostly long, wide (eighteen to twenty feet), low, hip-roofed (30°) structures. In most of them the salad beds are madeupon the floor, and the pathways are sunken a little so as to giveheadroom in walking and working. Others of these greenhouses are built alittle higher, and middle and side benches are erected within them, asin the case of florists' greenhouses, and with the view of growing saladplants on these benches as florists do carnations, and mushrooms underthe benches. The mushrooms are protected from sunlight by a covering oflight boards, or hay, or the space under the benches is entirely shutin, cupboard fashion, with wooden shutters. The temperature is veryfavorable for mushrooms, --steady and moderately cool, and easilycorrected by the covering-in of the beds; and the moisture of theatmosphere of a lettuce house is about right for mushrooms. In such ahouse the day temperature may run up, with sunshine, to 65° or 70° inwinter, but an artificial night temperature of only 45° to 50° ismaintained. Under these conditions, with the beds about fifteen inchesthick, they should continue to yield a good crop of short-stemmed, stoutmushrooms for two or three months, possibly longer. 

Besides growing the mushrooms in greenhouses our market gardeners arevery much in earnest in cultivating them in cellars. Some of thesecellars are ordinary barn cellars, others--large and commodious--havebeen built under barns and greenhouses, purposely for the cultivation ofmushrooms. Several of these mushroom cellars may be found on LongIsland between Jamaica and Woodhaven. 

=Florists. =--In midwinter the cut flower season is at its height and theflorist endeavors to make all the money out of his greenhouses that hepossibly can; every available inch of space exposed to the light isoccupied by growing plants, and under the benches alongside of thepathways dahlias, cannas, caladiums, and other tubers and bulbs arestored, also ivies, palms, succulents and the like. In order that theplants may be more fully exposed to the sunlight, they are grown onbenches raised above the ground so as to bring them near to the glass;and the greenhouse seems to be full to overflowing. But right here wehave the best kind of a mushroom house. The space under the benches, which is nearly useless for other purposes, is admirably adapted formushroom beds, and the warmth and moisture of the greenhouse areexceptionally congenial conditions for the cultivation of mushrooms. Florists need the loam and manure anyway, and these are just as good forpotting purposes--better for young stock--after having been used in themushroom beds than they were before, so that the additional expense inconnection with the crop is the labor in making the beds and the priceof the spawn. Mushrooms are not a bulky crop; they require no space orcare in summer, are easily grown, handled, and marketed, and there isalways a demand for them at a good price. If the crop turns out well itis nearly all profit; if it is a complete failure very little is lost, and it must be a bad failure that will not yield enough to pay for itscost. Why should the florist confine himself to one crop at a time inthe greenhouse when he may equally well have two crops in it at the sametime, and both of them profitable? He can have his roses on the benchesand mushrooms under the benches, and neither interferes with the other. Let us take a very low estimate: In a greenhouse a hundred feet longmake a five foot wide mushroom bed under the main bench; this will give500 square feet of bed, and half a pound to the foot will give 250pounds of mushrooms, which, sold at fifty cents a pound net, brings$125. This amount the florist would not have realized without growingthe mushrooms. 

=Private Gardeners. =--It is a part of their routine duty, and success inmushroom growing is as satisfactory to themselves as it is gratifying totheir employers. Fresh mushrooms, like good fruit and handsome flowers, are a product of the garden that is always acceptable. One of theprincipal pleasures in having a large garden and keeping a gardenerconsists in being able to give to others a part of the choicest gardenproducts. 

In most pretentious gardens there is a regular mushroom house, and thegrowing of mushrooms is an easy matter; in others there is no suchconvenience, and the gardener has to trust to his own ingenuity whereand how he is to grow the mushrooms. But so long as he has an abundanceof fresh manure he can usually find a place in which to make the beds. In the tool-shed, the potting-shed, the wood-shed, the stoke-hole, thefruit-room, the vegetable-cellar, or in some other out-building he cansurely find a corner; or, handier still, convenient room under thegreenhouse benches, where he can make some beds. Failing all of these hecan start in August or September and make beds outside, as the Londonmarket gardeners do. 

In fruit-forcing houses, especially early graperies, gardeners have aprejudice against growing any other plants than the grapevines lest redspiders, thrips, or mealy bugs are introduced with the plants, but inthe case of mushrooms no such grounds are tenable. As the vines haveyielded their fruit by midsummer and ripened their wood early so as tobe ready for starting into growth again in December or January, thegrapery is kept cool and ventilated in the fall and early winter, butthis need not interfere with the mushroom crop. Box up the beds or makethem in frames inside the grapery; the warm manure will afford themushrooms heat enough until it is time to start the vines, when theincreased temperature and moisture of the house will be in favor of themushrooms because of the declining heat in the manure beds. Themushrooms have no deleterious effect whatever upon the vines, nor havethe vines upon the mushrooms. 

=Village People and Suburban Residents. =--Those who keep horses should, at least, grow mushrooms for their own family use and, if need be, formarket as well. They are so easily raised, and they take up so littlespace that they commend themselves particularly to those who have only avillage or suburban lot, and, in fact, only a barn. And they are not acrop for which we have to make a great preparation and need a largequantity of manure. No matter how small the bed may be, it will bearmushrooms; and if we desire we can add to the bed week after week, asour store of manure increases, and in this way keep up a continuoussuccession of mushrooms. A bed may be made in the cow-house orhorse-stable, the carriage-house, barn-cellar, woodshed, orhouse-cellar; or if we can not spare much room anywhere, make a bed in abig box and move it to where it will be least in the way. But the bestplace is, perhaps, the cellar. An empty stall in a horse-stable is acapital place, and not only affords room for a full bed on the floor, but for rack-beds as well. 

=Farmers. =--No one can grow mushrooms better or more economically thanthe farmer. He has already the cellar-room, the fresh manure and theloam at home, and all he needs is some spawn with which to plant thebeds. Nothing is lost. The manure, after having been used in mushroombeds, is not exhausted of its fertility, but, instead, is well rottedand in a better condition to apply to the land than it was before beingprepared for the mushroom crop. The farmer will not feel the littlelabor that it takes. There is no secret whatever connected with it, andskilled labor is unnecessary to make it successful. The commonest farmhand can do the work, which consists of turning the manure once everyday or two for about three weeks, then building it into a bed andspawning and molding it. Nearly all the labor for the next ten or twelveweeks consists in maintaining an even temperature and gathering andmarketing the crop. 

Many women are searching for remunerative and pleasant employment uponthe farm, and what can be more interesting, pleasant and profitable workfor them than mushroom-growing? After the farmer makes up the mushroombed his wife or daughter can attend to its management, with scarcely anytax upon her time, and without interfering with her other domesticduties. And it is clean work; there is nothing menial about it. No ladyin the land would hesitate to pick the mushrooms in the open fields, howmuch less, then, should she hesitate to gather the fresh mushrooms fromthe clean beds in her own clean cellar? Mushrooms are a winter crop;they come when we need them most. The supply of eggs in the winterseason is limited enough, and pin-money often proportionately short; butwith an insatiable market demand for mushrooms all winter long, at goodprices, no farmer's wife need care whether the hens lay eggs atChristmas or not. When mushroom-growing is intelligently conducted thereis more money in it than in hens, and with less trouble. 

CHAPTER II. 

GROWING MUSHROOMS IN CELLARS. 

=Underground Cellars. =--Mushrooms require a uniform moderately lowtemperature and moist atmosphere, and will not thrive where draughts, orsudden fluctuations of temperature or moisture prevail. Therefore anunderground cellar is the best of all structures in which to growmushrooms. The cellar is everybody's mushroom house. 

Cellars are under dwellings, barns, and often under other out-buildings. These cellars are imperative for domestic purposes, for storing apples, potatoes and other root crops and perishable produce; and for these useswe need to make them frost proof and dry. These cellars are idealmushroom houses, and any one who has a good cellar can grow mushrooms init. In fact, our market gardeners who are making money out of mushroomsfind it pays them to excavate and build cellars expressly for growingmushrooms. Indeed, some of our market gardeners who have never grown amushroom or seen one grown, but who know well that some of theirneighbors are making money out of this business, instinctively feel thatthe first step in mushroom-growing is a cellar. It is almost incrediblehow secretly the market growers guard everything in connection withmushroom-growing from the outside world, and even from one another; infact, in some cases their next-door neighbors and life-long intimatefriends have never been inside their mushroom cellars. 

If a cellar is to be wholly devoted to mushroom-growing it should bemade as warm as possible with double windows, and double doors, wherethe entrance is from the outside, but if from another building singledoors will suffice. A chimney-like shaft or shafts rising from theceiling should be used as ventilators in winter, when we can notventilate from doors or windows; indeed, side ventilation at anytimewhen the beds are in bearing condition is rather precarious. Thereshould be some indoor way of getting into the cellar, as by a stairwayfrom the building above it. Also an easy way of getting in freshmaterials for the beds, and removing the exhausted material. This is, perhaps, best obtained by having a door that opens to the outside, or amoderately large one from the building above. 

[Illustration: FIG. 1. MUSHROOM CELLAR UNDER A BARN. ]

The interior arrangement of the cellar is a matter of choice with thegrower, but the simplest way is to have beds three or four feet widearound the inside of the walls, and beds six feet wide, with pathwaystwo, or two and one-half feet wide between them running parallel alongthe middle of the cellar. Above these floor-beds, shelf-beds in tiers ofone, two, or three, according to the height of the cellar, may beformed, always leaving a space of two and one-half or three feet betweenthe bottom of one bed and the bottom of the next. This is verynecessary, in order to admit of making and tending the beds andgathering the crop, and emptying the beds when they are exhausted. 

Provision should also be made for the artificial heating of thesecellars, and room given for the heating pipes wherever they are to run. But wherever fire heat is used in heating these cellars, if practicable, the furnace itself should be boxed off, by a thin brick wall, from themain cellar, and the pipes only introduced. This does away with the dustand noxious gas, and modifies the parching heat. 

But in a snug, warm cellar, artificial heat is not absolutely necessary. We can grow capital crops of mushrooms in such a cellar without anyfurnace heat, simply by using a larger body of material in making thebeds, --enough to maintain a steady warmth for a long time. But this, observe, is a waste of material, for no more mushrooms can be grown in abed two feet thick than in one a foot thick. In an unheated cellar themushrooms grow large and solid, but they do not come so quickly nor insuch large numbers as in a heated one. And a little artificial warmthhas the effect of dispelling that cold, raw, damp air peculiar to apent-up cellar in winter, and purifies the atmosphere by assistingventilation. 

Instead of using box beds, some growers spread the bed all over thefloor of the cellar, and leave no pathway whatever, stepping-boards orraised pathways being used instead. Of course, in these instances, noshelf beds are used. Others make ridge beds all over the cellar floor, as the Parisians do in the caves. The ridges are two feet wide atbottom, two feet high, and six or eight inches wide at top, and thereis a foot alley between them. Here, again, no shelf beds are used. 

One of the chief troubles with flat-roofed mushroom cellars is the dripfrom the condensed moisture rising from the beds, and this is moreapparent in unheated than in heated cellars, --the wet gathers upon theceiling and, having no slope to run off, drips down again. Oiled paperor calico strung along [Symbol: Inverted V] wise above the upper bedsprotects them perfectly; whatever falls upon the passage-ways upon thefloor does no harm. 

In any other outhouse cellar, as well as in one completely given over tothis use, we can make up beds and grow good mushrooms. Mr. James Vicktold me that at his seed farm near Rochester he raises many mushrooms inwinter in his potato cellars; and so can any one in similar places. Mr. John Cullen, of South Bethlehem, Pa. , a very successful cultivator, tells me that his present mushroom cellar used to be a large undergroundcistern, but with a little fixing, and opening a passage-way to it froma neighboring cellar, he has converted it into an excellent cellar formushrooms, and surely the immense crops that I have seen in that cave oftotal darkness justify his good opinion of it. 

=In Dwelling House. =--The cellar of a dwelling house is a capital placefor mushroom beds, and can be used in whole or part for this purpose. Inthe case of private families who wish to grow a few mushrooms only fortheir own use it is not necessary to devote a whole cellar to it; butpartition off a part of it with boards and make the beds in this. Ormake a bed alongside of the wall anywhere and box it in to protect itfrom cold and draughts, and mice and rats. You can have shelves above itfor domestic purposes, just as you would in any other part of thecellar. Bear in mind that mushrooms thrive best in an atmospherictemperature of from 50° to 60°, and if you can give them this in yourhouse-cellar you ought to get plenty of good mushrooms. But if such ahigh temperature can not be maintained without impairing the usefulnessof the cellar for other purposes, box up the beds tightly, and from theheat of the bed itself, when thus confined, there usually will be warmthenough for the mushrooms, but if not spread a piece of old carpet ormatting over the boxing. 

The beds may be made upon the floor, and flat, or ridged, or bankedagainst the wall, ten or twelve inches deep in a warm cellar, andfifteen to twenty inches or more deep in a cool cellar, and about threefeet wide and any length to suit. 

[Illustration: FIG. 2. BOXED-UP FRAME WITH STRAW COVERING. ]

The boxing may consist of any kind of boards for sides and ends, and bebuilt about six or ten inches higher than the top of the beds, so as togive the mushrooms plenty headroom; the top of the boxing may be a lidhung on hinges or straps, or otherwise arranged, to admit of beingeasily raised or removed at will, and made of light lumber, say one-halfinch thick boards. In this way, by opening the lid, the mushrooms areunder observation and can be gathered without any trouble. When the lidis shut they are secure from cold and vermin. Thus protected the cellarscan be ventilated without interfering with the welfare of themushrooms. A light wooden frame covered with calico or oiled paperwould also make a good top for the boxing, only it would not be proofagainst much cold, or rats or mice. If desirable, in warm cellars, shelfbeds could be built above the floor beds, but in cool, airy cellars thiswould not be advisable. 

Manure beds in the dwelling-house cellar may seem highly improper tomany people, but in truth, when rightly handled, these beds emit no badodor. The manure should be prepared away from the house, and when readyfor making into beds it can be spread out thin, so as to becomeperfectly cool and free from steam. When it has lain for two days inthis condition it may be brought into the cellar and made into beds. Having been well sweetened by previous preparation, it is now cool andfree from steam, and almost odorless; after a few days it will warm up alittle, and may then be spawned and earthed over at once. Do not burythe spawn in the manure, merely set it in the surface of the manure;this saves the spawn from being destroyed by too great a heat, shouldthe bed become unduly warm. This, if the manure has been well prepared, is not likely to occur. The coating of loam prevents the escape of anyfurther steam or odor from the manure. 

On the 14th of January last, Mr. W. Robinson, editor of the London_Garden_, in writing to me, mentioned the following very interestingcase of growing mushrooms in the cellar of a dwelling house: "I went outthe other day to see Mr. Horace Cox, the manager of the _Field_newspaper, who lives at Harrow, near the famous school. His house isheated by a hot-water system called Keith's, and the boiler is in achamber in the house in the basement. The system interested me and Iwent down to see the boiler, which is a very simple one worked with cokerefuse. However, I was pleased to see all the floor of the room notoccupied by the boiler covered with little flat mushroom beds andbearing a very good crop. Truth to tell, I used to fear growingmushrooms in dwelling houses might be objectionable in various ways; butthis instance is very interesting, as there is not even the slightestunpleasant smell in the chamber itself. The beds are small, scarcely afoot high, and perfectly odorless; so that it is quite clear that onemay cultivate mushrooms in one's house, in such a case as this, withoutthe slightest offence. "

=Mr. Gardner's Method. =--Mr. J. G. Gardner, of Jobstown, N. J. , uses anordinary cellar, such as any farmer in the country has, and the littlethat has been done to it to darken the windows and make them tight, soas to render them better for mushrooms, any farmer with a hand-saw, anax, a hammer and a few nails and some boards can do. Mr. Gardner is amarket gardener, and has not the amount of fresh manure upon his ownplace that he needs for mushroom-growing, but he buys it, common horsemanure, in New York, and it is shipped to him, over seventy miles, byrail. And this pays; and if it will pay a man to get manure at such acost for mushroom-growing, how much more will mushroom-growing pay thefarmer who has the cellar and the manure as well? Mr. Gardner raisesmushrooms, and lots of them. When I visited him last November, insteadof trying to hide anything in their cultivation from me, he tookparticular pains to show and explain to me everything about his way ofgrowing them. And he assures me that by adopting simple means ofpreparing the manure and "fixing" for the crop, and avoiding allcomplicated methods, one can get good crops and make fair profits. 

His cellar is sixty feet long, twenty-four feet wide, and nine feet highfrom floor to ceiling. The floor is an earthen one, but perfectly dry. It is well supplied with window ventilators and doors, and in theceiling in the middle of the cellar opens a tall shaft or chimney-likeventilator that passes straight up through the roof above. While thebeds are being made full ventilation by doors, windows and shaft isgiven, but as soon as there is any sign of the mushrooms appearing allventilators except the shaft in the middle are shut and kept closed. 

The bed occupies the whole surface of the cellar floor and was all madeup in one day. As a pathway, a single row of boards is laid on the topof the bed, running lengthwise along the middle of the cellar from thedoor to the farther end, and here and there between this narrow path andthe walls on either side a few pieces of slate are laid down on the bedto step upon when gathering the mushrooms. Here is the oddest thingabout Mr. Gardner's mushroom-growing. He does not give the manure anypreparatory treatment for the beds. He hauls it from the cars to thecellar, at once spreads it upon the floor and packs it solid into a bed. For example, on one occasion the manure arrived at Jobstown, July 8th;it was hauled home and the bed made up the same day, and the firstmushrooms were gathered from this bed the second week inSeptember, --just two months from the time the manure left the New Yorkor Jersey City stables. The bed was fifteen inches thick. In making itthe manure was first shaken up loosely to admit of its being more evenlyspread than if pitched out in heavy forkfuls, and it was then trampeddown firmly with the feet. The bed was then marked off into halves. Onone half (No. 1) a layer of a little over three inches of loam was atonce placed over the manure; on the other half (No. 2) no loam was usedat this time, but the manure on the surface of the bed--about threeinches deep--was forked over loosely. Twelve days after having been putin the temperature of the bed No. 2, three inches deep, was 90°, andthen it was spawned. On the next day the soil from bed No. 1, spawnedfour days earlier, was thrown upon bed No. 2, and then part of the soilthat was thrown on No. 1 was thrown back again on No. 2, so that now acoating of loam an inch and a half deep covered the whole surface of thebed. When finished the surface was tamped gently with a tamper with aface of pine plank sixteen inches long by twelve inches wide. Mr. Gardner does not believe in the alleged advantages of a hard-packedsurface on the mushroom bed, but is inclined to favor a moderately firmone. 

He uses the English brick spawn, which is sold by our seedsmen. He hastried making his own spawn, but owing to not having proper means fordrying it, he has had rather indifferent success. 

Almost all growers insert the pieces of spawn about two to three inchesunder the surface of the manure, one piece at a time, and at regularintervals of nine inches or thereabouts apart each way--lengthwise andcrosswise. But here, again, Mr. Gardner displays his individuality. Hebreaks up the spawn in the usual way, in pieces one or two inchessquare. Of course, in breaking it up there is a good deal of fineparticles besides the lumps. With an angular-pointed hoe he draws drillseighteen inches apart and two and one-half to three inches deeplengthwise along the bed, and in the rows he sows the spawn, as if hewere sowing peach stones, or walnuts, or snap beans, and covers it in asif it were seeds. 

Mr. Gardner regards 57° as the most suitable temperature for a mushroomhouse or cellar, and, if possible, maintains that without the aid offire-heat. He has hot-water pipes connected with the contiguousgreenhouse heating arrangement in his cellar, but he never uses them forheating the mushroom cellar except when obliged to. By mulching his bedwith straw he gets along without any fire-heat, but this is veryawkward when gathering the mushrooms. 

After the bed has borne a little while it is top-dressed all over with ahalf-inch layer of fine soil. Before using, this soil has been kept in aclose place--pit, frame, shed, or large box--in which there was, at thesame time, a lot of steaming-hot manure, so that it might becomethoroughly charged with mushroom food absorbed from the steam from thefermenting material. 

Should any portion of the bed get very dry, water of a temperature of90° is given gently and somewhat sparingly through a fine-sprayingwater-pot rose, or syringe. Enough water is never given at any one timeto penetrate through the casing into the manure below or the spawn inthe manure. But rather than make a practice of watering the beds, Mr. Gardner finds it is better to maintain a moist atmosphere, and thuslessen the necessity for watering. 

Mr. Gardner firmly believes that the mushrooms derive much nourishmentfrom the "steam" of fermenting fresh horse manure, and by using this"steam" in our mushroom houses we can maintain an atmosphere almostmoist enough to be able to dispense with the use of the syringe, and themushrooms are fatter and heavier for it. And he practices what hepreaches. In one end of his mushroom cellar he has a very large, deep, open box, half filled with steaming fresh horse-droppings, and once ortwice a day he tosses these over with a dung-fork, in order to raise a"steam, " which it certainly does. It is also for this purpose that heintroduces the loam so soon when making the beds, so that it may becomecharged with food that otherwise would be dissipated in the atmosphere. 

There is a marked difference between the mushrooms raised from theFrench flake spawn and those from the English brick spawn, but he hasnever observed any distinct varieties from the same kind of spawn. Sometimes a few mushrooms will appear that are somewhat differentlyformed from those of the general crop, but this he regards as the resultof cultural conditions rather than of true varietal differences. 

His last year's bed began bearing early in November, and continued tobear a good crop until the first of May. After that time, no matter whatthe crop may be, the mushrooms become so infested with maggots as to beperfectly worthless, and they are cleared out. It is on account of thelarge body of manure in the bed, and the low, genial, and equabletemperature of the cellar that the beds in this house always continue solong in good cropping condition. 

Some years ago the mushrooms were not gathered till their heads hadopened out flat, but nowadays the marketmen like to get them when theyare quite young and before the skin of the frill between the cup and thestem has broken apart. A good market is found in New York, Philadelphiaand Boston. 

=Mr. Denton's Method. =--Mr. W. H. Denton, of Woodhaven, L. I. , is anextensive market gardener about ten miles from New York. During thesummer months he grows outdoor vegetables for the New York and Brooklynmarkets, and in winter mushrooms in cellars. He has no greenhouses. Under his barns he has two large cellars which he devotes entirely tomushroom-growing in winter. The cellars are seven and one-half feet highinside; the beds five feet wide, nine inches deep, two feet apart, andrun parallel to one another the whole length of the cellar. The beds arethree deep, that is, one bed is made upon the floor, and the other two, rack or shelf fashion, are made above the floor bed, and two andone-half feet apart from the bottom of the one bed to the bottom of theone above it. The shelves altogether are temporary structures built ofordinary rough scantling and hemlock boards, and the beds are all oneboard deep. 

A common iron stove and string of sheet iron smoke pipes are used forheating the cellars. But he tells me the parching effect is very visibleon the beds, it dries them up on the surface very much, and he has tosprinkle them frequently with water to keep them moist enough. Duringthe late summer and fall months, on his return trips from the Brooklynmarkets, Mr. Denton hauls home fresh horse manure from the City stables. All that he can put on a wagon costs him about twenty-five cents; andthis is what he uses for mushrooms. He prepares it in a large open shedjust above the cellar, and when it is fit for use he adds aboutone-third of its bulk of loam. The loam is the ordinary field soil fromhis market garden. He tells me he has better success with beds made upin this way than when manure alone is used. We all know how very heavilymarket gardeners manure their land, also how vigorously most writers onmushroom culture denounce the use of manure-fatted loam in mushroombeds, but here is Mr. Denton, the most successful grower of mushroomsfor market in the neighborhood of New York, practicing the very thingthat is denounced! While he likes good lively manure to begin with he isvery careful not to use it soon enough to run any risk of overheating inthe beds. The loam in the manure counteracts this strong heatingtendency, also with the loam mixture the shelf-beds can be built muchmore firmly than with plain manure on the springy boards. When thetemperature falls to 90° he spawns the beds. 

He uses both French and brick spawn, but leans with most favor to thelatter, of which in the fall 1889 he used 400 lbs. He markets from 1700to 2500 lbs. Of mushrooms a year from these two cellars. Mr. Dentonbelieves emphatically in cleanliness in the mushroom cellar, andascribes his best successes to his most thorough cleaning. Every summerhe cleans out his cellars and limewashes all over. 

=Mr. Van Siclen's Method. =--Mr. Abram Van Siclen, of Jamaica, L. I. , also grows mushrooms very extensively in underground cellars, whosearrangements do not differ materially from those of Mr. Denton's, exceptin his manner of heating. He runs an immense greenhousevegetable-growing establishment, as well as a summer truck farm, anduses hot water heating apparatus, also smoke flues as employedordinarily in greenhouses, especially lettuce houses. The sheet ironpipes, except in squash houses, he does not hold in much favor. 

[Illustration: FIG. 3. CROSS-SECTION OF THE DOSORIS MUSHROOM CELLAR. ]

=The Dosoris Mushroom Cellar. =--This is a subterranean tunnel or cellarthat was excavated and arched some ten years ago, expressly for thecultivation of mushrooms. It is situated in an open, sunny part of thegarden, and its extreme length from outside of end walls is eighty-threefeet; but of this space nine feet at either end are given up toentrance pits and a heating apparatus; and the full length of themushroom cellar proper inside the inner walls is sixty-three feet. Thewalls and arch are of brick, and the top of the arch is two and one-halffeet below the surface of the soil. This tunnel or arch is seven feethigh in the middle and eight feet wide within, but a raisedtwo-feet-wide pathway along the middle lessens the height to six andone-half feet. Between this pathway and the sides of the building thereis only an earthen floor, but it is quite dry, as the cellar isperfectly drained. Three ventilators sixteen feet apart had been builtin the top of the arch, but this was a mistake, as the condensation inthe cellar in winter from these ventilators always keeps the place underthem cold and wet and rather unproductive. One tall wooden chimney-likeshaft would have been a better ventilator than the three ventilatingholes now there, which are covered over with an iron and glass grating. 

[Illustration: FIG. 4. GROUND PLAN OF THE DOSORIS CELLAR. ]

At one end of the house and behind the stairs descending into the pit isthe heating apparatus, from which a four-inch hot-water pipe passesaround inside the house near the wall and only four inches above ground. A three-feet wide hemlock flooring for the bed to rest on is laid alongeach side and about four inches above the pipe, leaving the aperturebetween the earth floor and the bottom of the bed along the pathway openfor the escape of the artificial heat. One might think that the hotwater pipe under, and so near the bed, would dry it up and destroy it, but such is not the case. In a cellar of this kind very little fire heatis needed to maintain the required temperature, and I do not know whereelse the pipes could be put where they would do the work any better andbe more out of the way. 

These beds, for convenience in building them, spawning them, moldingthem over, gathering the crop and watering the beds, and removing themanure after the beds are exhausted, are built against the wall and witha rounded face, thus giving a three and one-half feet wide surface ofbed in place of one three feet wide, were it built flat. This gain insuperficial area is not so important as it might seem, for the partimmediately next to the edge of the pathway seldom yields very much. Above these beds a string of shelf beds is arranged which runs the fulllength of both sides of the cellar. From the floor of the under bed tothe floor of the top bed is three feet, and the upper beds are just aswide as the lower ones. The shelves for the beds are temporary affairs, put up and taken down every year. The cross-bars rest in sockets in thewall made by cutting out half a brick every four feet along the wall, and on upright strips or feet one and one-fourth by four inches wide, ortwo by three inches, set under the inside ends of the cross-bars andresting on the cement floor close up against the lower bed. By havingthis foot end a quarter of an inch higher than the wall end the heavyweight of the bed is thrown toward the wall. Loose hemlock boards setclose together form the flooring, for there is no need of nailing any ofthem except the one next to the upright face board, which is ten incheswide, and nailed along the front, by the pathway, to the posts and shelfboard. By tilting the weight to the wall the upright board is firmenough to hold its place against any pressing out in building the beds. The supporting legs of the shelves are also nailed to the face board ofthe lower bed, and this holds them perfectly solid in place. The shelfbeds are eight inches deep at front, but can be made of any depthdesired against the walls at the back. The cold wall has no injuriouseffect upon the bearing of the bed, and many fine mushrooms grow closeagainst the walls. 

The entrance pits are nine and one-half feet deep from ground level, three feet eight inches wide, nine feet long, and are covered over withfolding doors on strong hinges, and descended into by means of woodenmovable stairs. These dimensions are needed at the end where the heatingapparatus is placed, but at the other end, although it is convenient inhandling the manure, a space two or three feet less would have answeredjust as well. A close door at either end of the mushroom cellar properseparates it from the end pits. The cellar is divided in the middle by apartition. This gives, when it is in full working order, eight beds, each thirty-one and one-half feet long, or a continuous run of 252 feetor 756 square feet of surface, and as the beds are renewed twice a yearthis gives 504 running feet of bed, or 1512 square feet of surface. Acommon average crop is three-fifths of a pound of mushrooms to thesquare foot of bed, and a good fair average is four-fifths of a pound. This would give over a thousand pounds of mushrooms a season from thiscellar when it is in full running capacity. But as the aim is to have asteady supply of mushrooms from October until May, and not a flush atany one time and a scarcity at another, only two beds are made at atime, allowing a month to intervene between every two. 

For the two beds, No. 1, preparing the manure begins in July, the bedsare made up in August, and gathering of the crop commences in October;work on the two beds, No. 2, begins in August, the beds are made up inSeptember, and the mushrooms gathered in November; preparing for the twobeds, No. 3, begins in September, the beds are made up in October, gathering commences in December; for the two beds, No. 4, work begins inOctober, the beds are made up in November, and the crop is gathered inJanuary; for the two beds, No. 5 (No. 1 renewed), work begins inNovember, the beds are made up in December, and the crop is gathered inFebruary; for the two beds, No. 6 (No. 2 renewed), work begins inDecember, the beds are made up in January, and the crop is gathered inMarch; for the two beds, No. 7 (No. 3 renewed), work begins in January, the beds are made up in February, and the crop is gathered in April; forthe two beds, No. 8 (No. 4 renewed), work begins in February, the bedsare made up in March, and the mushrooms gathered in May. After this timeof year the summer heat renders mushroom-growing uncertain, and themaggots destroy the mushrooms. This system allows each bed a bearingperiod of two months. After yielding a crop for some seven to nine weeksthe beds are pretty well exhausted and hardly worth retaining longer. They might drag along in a desultory way for weeks, but as soon as theystop yielding a paying crop we clear them out and start afresh. 

And when the mushroom season is closed we lift out and remove themanure, clean the boards used in shelving, and give the cellar athorough cleaning, --whitewash its walls and paint its woodwork withkerosene to destroy noxious insects and fungi. 

[Illustration: FIG. 5. BASE-BURNING WATER HEATER. ]

[Illustration: FIG. 6. VERTICAL SECTION. ]

The heating apparatus consists of one of Hitchings' base-burner boilerswith a four-inch hot-water pipe that passes around inside the cellar, and it deserves special mention because of its economy, efficiency, andthe satisfaction it gives generally. This boiler needs no deep orspacious stoke-hole. Here it is set under the stairway in a pit fourand one-half feet long, by three feet wide, by eighteen inches deep; itis not in the way, and there is plenty of room to attend to it. Theheater, like a common parlor stove, has a magazine for the supply ofcoal. It has a double casing with the water space between and down tothe bottom of it, so that when set in a shallow pit there is nodifficulty whatever about the circulation of the water in the pipes. Thehot water passes from the boiler to an open iron tank placed two feetabove it, as shown in the engraving, and thence down through aperpendicular pipe till it reaches and enters the horizontal pipes thatpass around the cellar and, returning, enters the boiler again near itsbase. The boiler and pipes are filled from this tank, which shouldalways be kept at least half full of water, and looked into every daywhen in use, so that when the water gets lower than half full it may befilled up again. About 134 running feet of four-inch pipe are includedinside the cellar (sixty-four feet on each side and six feet across atfurther end); this gives 134 square feet of heating surface, or aproportion of about a square foot of heating surface for every fifteencubic feet of air space in the cellar. This proportion is more thanample in the coldest weather, but beneficial in so far that there is noneed to fire hard to maintain the proper temperature. A three-inch pipewould have given heat enough, but the heat would not have been sosteady. Both nut and stove coal is used in this heater, and in theseverest winter weather it burns not more than a common hodful intwenty-four hours. It is so easily regulated that the temperature of thecellar day or night, or in mild or severe weather, never varies morethan three degrees, namely from 57° to 60°. 

In a close underground cellar where the temperature in midwinter withoutany artificial heat does not fall below 40° or 45° it is an easy matter, with such a heater as this is, to maintain any desired temperature. Ifthe grates are renewed now and then, the heater should last in goodcondition for twenty years. With the ordinary stove there is danger offire, of escaping gas and of sudden changes of temperature, and the evilinfluence of a dry, parching heat--just what mushrooms most dislike--isever present. The first cost of a hot water apparatus may be more thanthat of an old stove and sheet iron pipes, but where mushrooms are grownextensively, as a matter of economy, efficiency, and convenience, theadvantages are altogether on the side of the hot water apparatus. Furthermore, hot water pipes can be run where it would be unsafe to putsmoke pipes. 

CHAPTER III. 

GROWING MUSHROOMS IN MUSHROOM HOUSES. 

[Illustration: FIG. 7. MUSHROOM HOUSE BUILT AGAINST A NORTH-FACINGWALL. ]

A mushroom house is a building erected purposely for mushroom culture. It may be wholly or partly above ground, and built of wood, brick, orstone, and extend to any desired dimensions. But a few generalprinciples should be borne in mind. Mushrooms in houses are a winter andnot a summer crop, and they are impatient of sudden changes oftemperature and of a hot or arid atmosphere. Therefore, build the houseswhere they will be warm and well-sheltered in winter, so as to get theadvantage of the natural warmth, and spare the artificial heat. Theyshould be entered from an adjoining building, or through a porch on thesouth side, so as to guard against cold draughts or blasts in winterwhen the door would be opened in going into or coming out of the house. At the same time, do not lose sight of convenience in handling themanure, either in bringing it into the house or taking it out, and withthis in view it may be necessary to have a door opening to the outside. All outside doors should be double and securely packed around in winter. Side window ventilators are not necessary, at the same time they areuseful in the early part of the season and in summer time; they shouldbe double and tightly packed in winter. The walls, if made of brick, should be hollow, if of wood, double; indeed, walls built as if for anice house are the very best for a mushroom house, and should be bankedwith earth, tree leaves, or strawy manure in winter, to help keep theinterior of the house a little warmer. 

[Illustration: FIG. 8. SECTION OF MRS. C. J. OSBORNE'S MUSHROOM HOUSE. ]

The floor should be perfectly dry; that is, so well drained that waterwill not stand upon it, but it is immaterial whether the floor is anordinary earthen one or of wood or cement. 

[Illustration: FIG. 9. GROUND PLAN OF MRS. OSBORNE'S MUSHROOM HOUSE. ]

The roof should be double and always sloping, --never flat. The hoarfrost that appears in severe weather inside a single roof is likely tomelt as the heat of the day increases, and this cold drip falling uponthe beds below is very prejudicial to the mushroom crop. A double roofsaves the beds from this drip, and it also renders the house warmer, andless fire is needed to maintain the requisite temperature. One mightthink that a single roof like that of a dwelling house, and then a flatceiling under it, would be equivalent to a double sloping roof, but itis not. The moisture arising from the interior of the house condensesupon the flat ceiling, and the water, having no way of running off, drips down upon the beds. With a sloping ceiling or inside roof thewater runs down the ceiling to the walls. A very pointed example of thismay be seen in Mrs. C. J. Osborne's excellent mushroom house atMamaroneck, N. Y. It had been built in the most substantial manner, witha sloping roof and a flat ceiling under the roof, but so much annoyancewas caused by the drip falling from it upon the beds below that hergardener had the flat ceiling removed and a sloping one built instead, and now it works splendidly, and a few months ago I saw as fine a cropof mushrooms in that house as one could wish to look at. 

The interior arrangement of the mushroom house may resemble that of themushroom cellar. Beds may be made alongside of the walls and, if thereis room, also along the middle of the house, and shelves erected in thesame way as in the cellar. But in the case of cold, thin outside walls, the shelf-beds should not be built close against them, but instead boxedoff about two inches from the walls, so as to remove the beds from thechilling touch of the wall in winter. Economy may suggest theadvisability of high mushroom houses, so that one may be able to buildone shelf above another, until the shelves are two, three, or four deep. But this is a mistake. The artificial heat required to maintain atemperature of 55° in midwinter in a house built high above ground wouldbe too parching and unsteady for the good of the mushrooms; besides, asecond shelf is inconvenient enough, and when it comes to a third or afourth the inconvenience would be too great, and overreach any advantagehoped for in economy of space. An unheated mushroom house must beregarded as a shed, and treated similarly, as described in the followingchapter. 

In large, well appointed, private gardens, a mushroom house isconsidered an almost indispensable adjunct to the glasshouseestablishment, and is generally built against the north-facing wall of agreenhouse. In this way it gets the benefit of the warm wall, and may beeasily heated by introducing one or two hot-water pipes from thegreenhouse system; besides, in winter the house may be entered from theglass house or adjacent shed, and in this way be exempted from theinclement breath of the frosty air that would be admitted in opening theoutside door. 

[Illustration: FIG. 10. INTERIOR VIEW OF MR. S. HENSHAW'S MUSHROOMHOUSE. ]

=Mr. Samuel Henshaw's Mushroom House. =--Mr. Henshaw has raisedmushrooms several years at his place on Staten Island. His mushroomhouse is nine feet wide and sixty feet long. One side is a brick walland the other is double boarded. The roof is of tin, in which there arethree sashes each two by five feet, supplying ample light. At each endis a door giving convenient access to the interior, for carrying in andremoving material without disturbing the bearing beds. In winter theroof is covered with a coating of salt hay, to preserve an equabletemperature and prevent the moisture from condensing on the ceiling andfalling in drops on the beds. The floor is of earth, which, when welldrained, he thinks preferable to either brick or lumber. The floor isentirely covered with beds, no shelves or walks being used. This makesit necessary to step on the beds, but as no covering is employed it isalways easy to avoid stepping on the clusters of young mushrooms, and solong as they are left uninjured the bed is seldom, if ever, impaired bythe compacting effect of the treading. In order to maintain a necessarywinter temperature of 60° a four-inch hot-water pipe extends the wholelength of the house about two feet from the floor. On the other side ofthe brick wall is a greenhouse which, by keeping the wall warm, helps tokeep the mushroom house warm. Mr. Henshaw divides this house into threeequal beds. The part at the further end of the house is made up in thefall and comes into bearing in December; the middle part a month laterto come in a month later, and the near end still a month later, tofollow as another succession. Then, if need be, and he wishes to renewthe bed at the further end of the house, he clears it out and suppliesfresh material for the new bed. 

CHAPTER IV. 

GROWING MUSHROOMS IN SHEDS. 

Any one who has a snug, warm shed, may have a good mushroom house, butit is imperative that the floor should be dry, and the roof water-tight. Of course a close shed, as a tool-house or a carriage-house, is betterthan an open shed, but even a shed that is open on the south side, ifclosely walled on the other sides, can also be made of good use formushroom beds. While open sheds are good enough for beds that yieldtheir crop before Christmas, they are ill-adapted for midwinter beds. The temperature of the interior of a mushroom bed should be about 60°during the bearing period, and the temperature of the surface of the bed45° to 50° at least; if lower than that the mycelium has a tendency torest, and the crop stagnates. Now this temperature can not be maintainedin an open shed, in hard frosty weather, without more trouble than thecrop is worth. The beds would have to be boxed up and mulched veryheavily. And even in a close, warm shed, protection in this way wouldhave to be given, but the bed should not be under the penetratinginfluence of piercing winds and draughts. The mushroom beds shouldtherefore be made in the warmest parts of the warmest sheds. 

The beds should be made upon the floor and as much to one side aspossible, so as to be out of the way, and in form flat on the ground, orrounded up against the sides of the shed; in the latter case the houseshould be well banked around on the outside with litter or tree leavesor earth, so as to exclude frost from the lower part of the walls, andthereby prevent the manure in the beds from getting badly chilled. Thebeds should be made deeper in a cool shed than in a cellar or warmmushroom house, so that they may retain their heat for a long time. 

Shelf beds should not be used in unheated sheds, because of thedifficulty in keeping them warm in winter. As a rule, shelf beds are notmade as deep as are those upon the floor; hence they do not hold theirheat so long. When cold weather sets in it is easy to box up and coverover the lower beds to keep them warm, but in the case of shelf beds, that are exposed above and below, it is more trouble to protect themsufficiently against cold than they are worth. 

Generally speaking, the term shed is applied to unheated, simple woodenstructures; for instance, the wood-shed, the tool-shed, acarriage-house, or a hay-barn. But we often use the name shed todesignate heated buildings, as the potting and packing sheds offlorists. Were it not that these heated sheds are simply workrooms, andwhere there is a great deal of going out and in, and, consequently, draughts and sudden and frequent fluctuations of temperature, thetreatment of mushroom beds made in them would be the same as thatadvised for regular mushroom houses; but as the circumstances aresomewhat different the treatment, too, should not be the same. A warmpotting shed is an excellent place for mushroom beds. Here they shouldbe made under the benches and covered up in front with thick calico, plant-protecting cloth, or light wooden shutters, to exclude coldcurrents and sudden atmospheric changes, and guard against the bedsdrying too quickly. 

CHAPTER V. 

GROWING MUSHROOMS IN GREENHOUSES. 

Any one who has a greenhouse can grow mushrooms in it. And it does notmatter what kind of greenhouse it is, whether a fruit house, a flowerhouse, or a vegetable house, it is available for mushrooms. One of theadvantages of raising mushrooms in a greenhouse is that they grow toperfection in parts of the greenhouse that are nearly worthless forother purposes; for instance, under the stages, where nothing else growswell, although rhubarb and asparagus might be forced there, and a littlechicory and dandelion blanched. 

[Illustration: FIG. 11. BOXED MUSHROOM BED UNDER GREENHOUSE BENCH. ]

Cool greenhouses, in all cases, are better for mushrooms than hothouses. Cool houses are seldom kept at a lower temperature than 45° or 50° inwinter, while hothouses run from 60° to 70° at night, with a rise of tento twenty degrees by day, and this is too hot for mushrooms. It is avery easy matter, by means of covering with hay or boxing over andcovering the boxing with hay or matting, to keep a mushroom bed in acool house warm and free from marked changes in temperature; but it is adifficult matter to keep a mushroom bed in a hothouse cool enough andprevent sudden rises in temperature. 

=On Greenhouse Benches. =--It sometimes happens that the beds are formedon the greenhouse benches, and the mushrooms occupy the same place thatmight be assigned to roses or any other planted-out crop. The beds onthe benches are made one board deep, that is, eight to ten inches ofshort, fresh manure, and otherwise as in the case of beds anywhere else. After the beds are spawned and cased with soil, by covering them overwith a layer of straw litter or hay, sudden drying out of the surface isprevented, and in order to further prevent this drying it is a good planto sprinkle some water over the mulching every day or two, but notenough to soak through into the bed. About the time the young mushroomscommence to show themselves, remove the mulching and replace it with acovering of shutters raised another board's height above the bed, orwith strong calico or plant-protecting cloth hung curtain-fashion overthe beds. The accompanying illustration, Fig. 12, for which I amindebted to Henry A. Dreer, of Philadelphia, gives an excellent idea ofhow mushrooms may be grown and cared for on greenhouse benches. Thisillustration, Mr. Dreer writes: "is made from a photograph of a cropgrown on the greenhouse benches at the Model Farm, by Mr. McCaffrey, gardener to J. E. Kingsley, Esq. , of the Continental Hotel. . . . Nocovering of litter is used, but the requisite shading on sunny days issecured by the use of cotton cloth stretched over the top of the bed, asshown in the engraving. "

[Illustration: FIG. 12. MUSHROOMS GROWN ON GREENHOUSE BENCHES AT MR. J. E. KINGSLEY'S MODEL FARM. ]

My principal objection to mushroom beds on greenhouse benches is theirliability to frequent and marked changes of atmospheric temperature andmoisture, and to drying out. In midwinter they may be all right, but asspring advances and the sun's brightness and heat increase, thesusceptibility of the beds to become dry also increases. 

[Illustration: FIG. 13. WIDE BED WITH PATHWAY ABOVE. ]

=In Frames in the Greenhouses. =--Mr. J. G. Gardner has a range ofgreenhouses some 900 feet long--the longest unbroken string ofglasshouses that I know of--for the forcing of fruit and vegetables inwinter; grapes, peaches, nectarines, figs, tomatoes, cucumbers, snapbeans, peas, lettuce. This range is divided into several compartments, to accommodate the different varieties of crops, also so that some canbe run as succession houses. In order to make the most of everything, market-gardener-like, he doubles up his crops wherever possible, and forthis end he finds no crop more amenable and profitable than mushrooms. It matters nothing to him whether the house is cold or warm, he can growmushrooms in it anyway, and in order to be master of the situation hemakes his mushroom beds in hotbed frames inside the greenhouses. Byattending to ventilating or keeping close, or covering up or leavingbare, he can properly regulate the temperature of the mushroom bed, nomatter how hot or cold the atmosphere of the greenhouse may be. In thesame way--by shading the panes or unshading them--he governs the lightadmitted to the mushrooms. 

The greenhouses in which the mushrooms are grown are orchard houses, that is, glasshouses in which peach and nectarine trees are grown andforced. As these trees fruit and finish their growth early, it isnecessary that they be kept as cool and inactive as possible in the falland early winter, and started again into growth in late winter. In thefall, therefore, the fermenting material being confined in framesretains warmth enough for the proper development of the mushrooms, andas the winter advances and the heat in the frames begins to wane itbecomes necessary to begin heating the greenhouses in order to start thetrees into bloom and growth, and thus are provided very favorableconditions for the continued production of the mushroom crop. 

[Illustration: FIG. 14. MUSHROOMS ON GREENHOUSE BENCHES UNDER TOMATOES. ]

The frames used are common hotbed box frames seven feet wide andcarrying three and one-half feet wide sashes. A string of them is runalong the middle of the greenhouses, for greenhouse after greenhouse isoccupied by them. They are flat upon the floor, and in the early part ofthe season alone in the greenhouses. But as the winter advances atemporary staging is erected over these frames, on which spiræas, peas, beans, or other flowers or vegetables are to be grown. These love thelight and a position near the glass, whereas the mushrooms growperfectly well in the dark quarters of the frames under the stages. Ifhe did not grow mushrooms under these stages the room would beunoccupied, hence unproductive; but by occupying it with mushrooms henot only gets peaches and snap beans at once out of the same greenhouse, but also a crop of mushrooms, often worth as much as the other two. 

In preparing the beds in the frames they were made up a foot deep, veryfirm, and with New York stable manure brought direct from the cars. There was no preliminary preparation of the manure. A layer of loam oneand one-half inches deep was then spread over the surface and forkedinto the bed of manure one and one-half inches deep, so as to form anearthy mat three inches deep. This was then packed solid with the feet, and a two-inch layer of loose manure added all over. In about ten daysthe temperature three inches below the surface was about 95°, and thebeds were then spawned. In spawning, drills were drawn across the bedsabout a foot apart and just deep enough to touch but not penetrate theearthy mat before referred to. The broken spawn was then sown in thedrills and covered with a layer of loam one and one-half to two inchesdeep, which was tamped slightly. The sashes were then put on and tiltedup a little to let the moisture escape. By the time the mushroomsappeared there was very little need of ventilating, as the condensationof moisture on the glass was scarcely apparent; but ventilation iseasily guided by the appearance of moisture on the glass, the more ofthis the more ventilation should be given. To begin with, there was noattempt at shading the frames; but as soon as the mushrooms began toappear the beds were shaded, and mostly by the crops of other plants onthe stages above them. These frame beds were made up last October, andbegan bearing in December, and on March 14 Mr. Gardner wrote me: "Themushrooms in my frames have done grandly. I cut large basketfuls to-dayof the finest mushrooms I have ever seen, some of them measuring fiveinches in diameter before being fully expanded. "

And further, in submitting the above notes to him for verification, headds: "There is one vital point we should impress upon all who growmushrooms in frames or under greenhouse benches, namely, that suddenchanges of temperature must be avoided. While light, in my opinion, isgood for mushrooms, it causes a rise of temperature, and this we mustguard against. In order to maintain a uniform temperature all glassexposed to light or heat in any other way should be covered with somenon-conducting material. Rye straw is the best thing for this purposethat I know of. Indeed, neglect of this simple matter, in cases wheresunlight and heat from hot-water pipes come in contact with the youngmushrooms or mycelium on the surface of the beds, is the cause of manyfailures in growing in frames and greenhouses. "

=Under Greenhouse Benches. =--Open empty spaces under the stages anywhereare good places for mushroom beds. However, carefully observe a fewpoints, to wit: A dry floor under the beds is imperative, for a wetfloor soaks and chills the beds, and renders them unhealthy for thespawn; but the common earth floor is good enough, provided water doesnot stand upon it at any time; if it does, the floor to be under thebeds can be rendered dry by raising it a little higher than the generallevel, or using a flooring of old boards. Beds should not be built closeup against hot-water pipes, steam pipes, or smoke flues, as the heatfrom these when they are in working condition will bake the parts of thebeds next to them and render them unproductive, and also crack and spoilthe caps of the mushrooms that come up within a foot or two of thepipes. But this injury from hot pipes and flues can be lessened greatlyby boxing the pipes, so as to shut off the heat from the mushroom bedsand allowing it full escape upward; then the beds can be made, withsafety, up to within a foot of the pipes. As a rule, hot-water pipes arerun around under the front benches of a greenhouse, then it would not beadvisable to make beds under those benches. The middle bench is the onemost commonly free from pipes, hence the one best adapted for beds. Ithas more headroom, and therefore easier working facilities. Steam-heatedgreenhouses generally present the best accommodations for mushroom beds, because the pipes occupy less room under the benches than do those forhot water, and they are always kept higher from the ground. 

=Among Other Plants on Greenhouse Benches. =--It sometimes happens thatmushrooms spring up spontaneously among the roses, carnations, violets, mignonette, and other crops that are grown "planted out" on the benches, and this is particularly the case where fresh soil had just been used, in whole or part, for filling the bench beds. These mushrooms come fromnatural spawn contained in the loam or manure before they were broughtindoors, and which is apt to be true virgin spawn. The mushrooms aregenerally of the common kind, grown from brick spawn, but occasionally amuch larger and heavier sort is produced, and this is the "horse"mushroom. It is perfectly good to eat, only of coarser quality than theother. 

A fair and certain crop can be obtained by planting pieces of spawn inthe beds here and there between the plants and where they will be leastlikely to be soaked with water. In order to further insure thedevelopment of the spawn, holes about the size of a pint cup should bescooped out here and there over the bed, and filled up solidly withquite fresh but dry horse droppings, with the piece of spawn in themiddle, and covered over on top with an inch of loam, so as to leave thewhole surface of the bed level. So small a quantity of dry manuresurrounded with cold earth will not heat perceptibly, and the moistureof the loam about it will soon moisten it, no matter how dry it may be. The dry, fresh droppings are the very best material for starting themycelium into growth. 

=Growing Mushrooms in Rose Houses. =--George Savage, the head gardener atMr. Kimball's greenhouses, Rochester, N. Y. , grows mushrooms verysuccessfully under the benches of the rose houses. When he makes up hisearliest mushroom beds in the fall the rose house is kept cool, and thisis an advantage to the mushroom beds, which get all the warmth they needfrom the fermenting manure; but as November advances, and the heat inthe beds begins to wane the rose houses are "started, " and thisartificial warmth comes in good season to benefit the growing mushrooms. The roses, in this case, are planted out on benches, hence there isscarcely any dripping of water from above upon the mushroom beds below. 

Mr. George Grant, of Mamaroneck, N. Y. , who grows mushrooms in thegreenhouse, I called to see last January, and was very much pleased withhis simple and successful method. The beds were then in fine bearing, very full, and the crop was of the best quality. The beds were made uponthe earthen floor of his tomato-forcing house and under the back bench. The bed was flat, seven to eight inches deep, with a casing of aten-inch-wide hemlock board set on edge at the back, and another of samesize against the front. The bed was made of horse droppings, six inchesdeep, and molded over with fresh loam one and one-half inch deep. Overthe whole, and resting on the edges of the hemlock boards, was a lightcovering of other boards, with a sprinkling of hay on top of them toarrest and shed drip, and maintain an equable temperature in the bed. 

Mr. Abram Van Siclen, of Jamaica, Long Island, is one of the largestmushroom growers for market in the country, as well as one of the mostextensive growers of market-garden truck under glass around New York. Hedevotes an immense area under his lettuce-house benches to thecultivation of mushrooms. The beds are made upon the floor in the usualway, only for convenience' sake, to admit of plenty of room in making upthe beds and gathering the crop, besides avoiding the necessity forbuilding higher structures than the ordinary lettuce greenhouses, themushroom beds are sunken about eighteen to twenty-four inches under thelevel of the pathways. As the lettuces are planted out upon the benchesthere is very little drip from them, hence the sunken beds are wellenough. And the temperature of a lettuce house is about right for along-lasting mushroom bed. Light is excluded by a simple covering ofsalt hay laid over the beds, and sometimes by light wooden shutters setup against the aperture between the lettuce benches and the floor, inthis way boxing in the mushrooms in total darkness. 

Mr. William Wilson, of Astoria, has an immense greenhouse establishmentnear New York. In his greenhouses, under both the side and middlebenches, he grows mushrooms, and when I saw them in January there wereabout 300 square yards of beds. The beds were flat, about nine inchesthick, built upon the ground, and protected from strong light by havingmuslin tacked over the openings between the benches and the bedsalongside the pathways. But his crop was suffering from drip. Mr. Wilsontold me he could not begin to supply the demand. He says whatever hemakes on mushrooms is mostly clear gain. They occupy space thatotherwise would remain unoccupied, and he needs the manure and the loamin his florist business, and it is in better condition for potting afterit has been rotted in the mushroom beds than it was before it was usedfor this purpose. 

[Illustration: FIG. 15. MR. WM. WILSON'S MUSHROOM BEDS. ]

=Drip from the Benches. =--This must be prevented from the beds above, else it will soak or chill, and in a large measure kill the spawn. Ihave seen many examples of this evil. The beds would be full of dripholes all over their surface, and although a good many mushrooms hereand there about the bed might perfect themselves, multitudes only reachthe pin-head condition--or possibly the size of peas--and then fogg offin patches. It is not one or two little mushrooms in a clump that foggoff, but where one foggs off all of the little ones in that patch go, for it is not a disease of the individual mushroom, but of the myceliumor mushroom plant that runs in the bed, and when this is injured orkilled all the little mushrooms arising from this particular patch ofplant are robbed of sustenance and must perish. 

In greenhouses where the benches are occupied with roses, carnations, bouvardias, violets, or lettuces, "planted out, " as commercial floristsand gardeners generally grow them, there is very little drip, becausewhile the plants on these benches are freely watered, the soil is neversoaked enough for the water to drain from it in dripping streamlets, asis continually the case in greenhouses where potted plants are grown onthe stages. Under these "planted out" benches, if care is exercised, mushrooms can be grown in open beds; in fact, it is about the best placeand condition for them in a greenhouse. 

[Illustration: FIG. 16. MUSHROOM BED BUILT FLAT UPON THE GROUND. ]

With stages occupied by plants in pots provision needs to be made toward off the drip from the mushroom beds, by erecting over, andconveniently high above them, a light wooden framework, on which restlight wooden frames covered with oiled paper, oiled muslin, orplant-protecting cloth. In fact, three light wooden strips run over thebed, as shown in Fig. 12, or three strings of stout cord or wire run inthe same manner will answer for small beds, and act as a support for theoiled muslin or plant-protecting cloth. Building paper is sometimes usedfor the same purpose. Mr. J. G. Gardner uses ordinary hotbed frames andsashes, as described in a previous chapter. Light wooden shutters--madeof one-half inch or five-eighths inch pine--may be used for the sameend, and will last for many years. 

[Illustration: FIG. 17. RIDGED MUSHROOM BED. ]

The beds under the greenhouse benches may be made up in the same way asare beds anywhere else; that is, flat upon the floor and between twoboards set on edge, as seen in Fig. 16, or in ridges under the high ormiddle benches, as in Fig. 17, or in banked beds against the back wall, as shown in Fig. 18. Generally the flat bed is the most convenient tomake and take care of. 

[Illustration: FIG. 18. BANKED BED AGAINST A WALL. ]

In open, airy greenhouses it is always well to inclose the mushroom bedsin box casings and with sash or shutter coverings, to prevent draughtsand fluctuations of temperature and atmospheric moisture. This caneasily be done by making the sides a board and a half (fifteen inches), or two boards (twenty inches) high, and covering over with light woodenshutters, sashes, or muslin or paper-covered light frames. See Fig. 11. 

=Ammonia Arising. =--Ammonia arising from the manure of the mushroom bedsin the greenhouse may be injurious to the other inmates of thegreenhouse. If the manure has been well prepared before it wasintroduced into the greenhouse, the ammonia arising from it will not, inthe least degree, injure any other plants or flowers that may be in thehouse; but if the manure is fresh, hot, and rank, the opposite will bethe case. Beds in greenhouses should always be made up of manure thathas been well prepared beforehand out of doors or in a shed, and as itis brought into the greenhouse it should at once be built solidly intothe beds. Then very little steam will arise from the beds; in fact, itwill be imperceptible to sight or smell. 

CHAPTER VI. 

GROWING MUSHROOMS IN THE FIELDS. 

Under suitable conditions we can grow mushrooms easily and abundantly inthe open fields, and the planting of the spawn is all the trouble theywill cause us. During the late summer and fall months mushrooms oftenappear spontaneously and in great quantity in our open pastures, but intheir natural condition they are an uncertain crop, as in one year theymay occur in the greatest abundance, and in the next perhaps none can befound in the fields in which they had been so numerous the previousyear. Why this should be so is not very clear. The popular opinion isthat after a dry summer mushrooms abound in the fields, but after a wetsummer they are a very scarce crop; and the inference is that themoisture has killed the spawn in the ground. This may be true to acertain extent, but how does it happen--as it certainly often does--thatgood spawn planted by hand in the fields in early summer will producemushrooms toward fall no matter whether the summer has been wet or dry?At the same time, it is true that a wet spell immediately succeeding theplanting of the spawn will kill a great deal of it. 

As a rule, wild mushrooms abound most in rich, old, well-drained, rolling pasture lands, and avoid dry, sandy, or wet places, or theneighborhood of trees and bushes. In attempting to cultivate them in theopen fields we should endeavor to provide similar conditions. Then thechief requisite is good spawn, for without this we can not raisemushrooms. 

About the middle of June take a sharp spade in the pasture, make =V= or=T=-shaped cuts in the grass sod about four inches deep and raise oneside enough to allow the insertion of a bit of spawn two to three inchessquare under it, so that it shall be about two inches below the surface, then tamp the sod down. By cutting and raising the sod in this way, without breaking it off, it is not as likely to die of drought insummer. In this way plant as much or little as may be desired and atdistances of three, four, or more feet apart. During the followingAugust or September the mushrooms should show themselves, and continuein bearing for several weeks. 

Mr. Henshaw, of Staten Island, who has been very successful in growingmushrooms in the fields as well as indoors, writes to me as follows:"You ask me to give you my plan of growing mushrooms in the fieldsduring the summer. It is very simple. About the end of June, or as soonas dry weather sets in, we remove the old beds from our mushroom house, and if there should be any live spawn in the bottom of our beds we putit in a wheelbarrow and take it to the field, where we plant it in theopen places, but never under trees. In planting, we lift a sod and put ashovelful of the manure containing the spawn in the hole, then replacethe sod and beat it down firm; this we do at distances of twelve feetapart. If we have no live spawn from our indoor beds we take the commonbrick spawn, and put about a quarter of a brick into each hole, returning and beating down the sod as already stated. This is all thatis done. If there comes a dry time after the spawn is put in the pasturewe are sure to have a good supply of mushrooms in the fall. "

A few years ago Carter & Co. , seedsmen, London, sent this to one of thegardening periodicals: "The following mode of growing mushrooms inmeadows by one of our customers may be interesting to your readers: InMarch (May would be soon enough here) he begins to collect droppingsfrom the stables. These, when enough have been gathered together, aretaken into the meadow, where holes dug here and there about one foot oreighteen inches square are filled with them, the soil removed beingscattered over the surrounding grass. When all the holes have beenfilled and made solid he then places two or three pieces of spawn aboutone inch square in each hole, treads all down firmly, replaces the turfand beats it tightly down. Under this system, in August and Septembermushrooms appear without fail in abundance and without any further care. The method is simple and the result certain. Therefore all who happen tohave a meadow, paddock, or grass field, and are fond of mushrooms, should try the experiment. . . . In the case in question fresh holes werespawned every year. "

CHAPTER VII. 

MANURE FOR MUSHROOM BEDS. 

In order to grow mushrooms successfully and profitably a supply of freshhorse manure is needed, and this should be the very best that is made, either at home or bought from other stables. The questions of manure andspawn are the most important that we have to deal with. Very few maketheir own spawn, as it is bought and accepted upon its goodlooks, --often rather deceptive, --but the manure business is entirely inour own hands, and success with it depends absolutely upon ourselves. Wecan not reasonably expect good results from poor manure nor fromill-prepared manure. It is only from the very best of horse manureprepared in the very best fashion that we can hope for the very bestcrops of the best mushrooms. 

=Horse Manure. =--There are various kinds of horse manure, differingmaterially in their worth for mushroom beds. The kind of manure dependsupon the condition of the horses, how they are housed, fed, and bedded, and how the manure is taken care of. But while the manure of all healthyanimals is useful for our purpose, there still is a great choice inhorse manure. If we are dependent upon our home supply we may use andmake the best of what we have, but if we have to buy the manure weshould be very particular to select the best kind of manure and acceptof no other. 

The very best manure is that from strong, healthy, hard-worked, well-kept animals that are liberally fed with hard food, as timothy hayand grain, and bedded with straw. And if the bedding be pretty wellwetted with urine and trampled under the horses' feet, so much thebetter; indeed, this is one reason why manure from farm and teamsters'stables is better than that from stylish establishments, whereeverything is kept so scrupulously dry and clean. 

[Illustration: FIG. 19. PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE DOSORIS MUSHROOMCELLAR. ]

The fresher the manure is the better, still manure that is not perfectlyfresh may also be quite good. Stable manure may accumulate in a cellarfor a couple of months, and still be first rate. After our hotbed seasonis over I stack our stable manure high in the yard, and from June untilAugust, as the manure is taken away from the stable each day, it ispiled on the top of this stack. My object is to keep it so dry that itcan neither heat nor rot. In August the stack is broken down and thebest manure shaken out to one side for mushrooms, and the long straw androtted parts thrown to the other side. This short manure, when moistenedwith water and thrown into a heap, exposed to the sun for a day or two, will heat up briskly. The beds illustrated in Fig. 19 were made frommanure prepared in this way in August. 

In the case of quite fresh manure, let it accumulate for a few days, ora fortnight, even, until there is enough of it to make up a bed, andthen prepare it. Be very particular to prevent, from the first, itsheating violently or "burning" while accumulating in the pile. Beds madefrom very fresh manure respond quickly and generously. The crop comes inheavily to begin with, and continues bearing largely while it lasts, butits duration is usually shorter than in the case of a bed made up ofless fresh manure. But altogether it yields a better and heavier cropthan a bed that comes in more gradually and lasts longer, and themushrooms are of the finest quality. 

Some growers use the droppings only, and reject all of the strawy part, or as much of it as they can conveniently shake out. This gives them anexcellent manure and perhaps the very best for use on a small scale orin small beds. When mushrooms are to be grown in boxes, narrow troughs, half barrels, and other confined quarters, it is well to concentrate themanure as much as possible--use all the droppings and as little straw asyou can. But droppings alone for large beds would take too much manureand cost too much, and they would not be any better than with a roughermanure. 

Always preserve the wet, strawy part of the manure, along with thedroppings, and mix and ferment them together, and in this way not onlyadd largely to the bulk of the pile, but secure the benefits afforded bythe urine without reducing, in any way, the strength or fermentingproperties of the manure. Shake out all the rank, dry, strawy part ofthe manure and lay it aside for other purposes. This may be of furtheruse as bedding in the stables, covering the mushroom beds after theyhave been made up, or for hotbeds; if well wetted with stable drainings, or even plain water, it forms a ready heating material. 

Many a time when we have been short of home-made manure I have boughtsome loads here and there from different stables in the village, andmixed all together and made it into beds with excellent results. Sometimes when the manure under preparation had been rather old andcool, I have added a fifth or tenth part of fresh droppings to it, withvery quickening effect in heating and apparent benefit to the crop. 

It is generally believed that the manure of entire horses is better formushrooms than that of other horses, but positive evidence in thisdirection has never come under my observation. Some practical men assertthat there is no difference. Mr. John G. Gardner, at the Rancocas Farm, who has had abundant opportunity to test this matter, tells me that hehas given it a fair trial and been unable to find any difference in thequality or quantity of mushrooms raised from beds made from the manureof entire horses and those raised from beds made from the manure ofother equally as well fed animals. But the Parisian growers insist thatthere is a difference in favor of entire horses, especially in the caseof hard-worked animals such as are engaged in heavy carting. 

Manure of horses that are largely fed with carrots is emphaticallycondemned by most writers on the cultivation of mushrooms; indeed, it isone of _the_ points in every book on mushrooms which I have read. Let uslook at a few practical facts: There are at Dosoris two shelf beds inone cellar; each is thirty feet long, three feet wide, and nine inchesdeep, and both are bearing a very thick crop of mushrooms. The materialin these beds consists of horse manure three parts and chopped sod loamone part, which had been mixed and fermented together from the firstpreparation. The manure was saved from the stables on the place inNovember, '88, the materials prepared in December, the beds built Dec. 17, spawned Dec. 24, molded over Dec. 31, and first mushrooms gatheredFeb. 7, 1889. These beds bore well until the middle of April. Themushrooms did not average as large as they did on the deeper beds uponthe floor of the cellar, but they ran about three-fourths to one ounceapiece, and a good many were more than this. It is most always the case, however, that the crop on thin shelf beds averages less than it does onthick floor beds, and especially is this noticeable after the firstflush of the crop has been gathered, no matter what kind of fermentingmaterial had been used. At the time when the manure used for these bedswas being saved at the stable the horses were only very lightly worked, and to each horse was fed, in addition to hay and some oats and bran, about a third of a bushel of carrots a day. And this is the manure usedfor the late mushroom beds, and yet good crops and good mushrooms areproduced. This is not only the experience of one year's practice but theregular routine of many. 

Perhaps some one would like to ask: Do you consider the manure ofcarrot-fed horses as good as the manure of animals to which no carrotsor other root crops had been fed? My answer is--decidedly not. Whilethe manure of carrot-fed animals is not the best, at the same time it isgood, and any one having plenty of it can also have plenty of mushrooms. The complete denunciation of the manure of carrot-fed horses soemphatically stereotyped upon the minds and pens of horticulturalwriters is not always founded on fact. 

=Manure of Mules. =--This is regarded as being next in value to that ofentire horses, and some French growers go so far as to say that it isquite as good. Mr. John G. Gardner tells me of an extraordinary crop ofmushrooms he once had which astonished that veteran, Samuel Henshaw, andthat it was from beds made of manure from mule stables. Certainly theheaviest crop of mushrooms I ever did see was at Mr. Wilbur's place atSouth Bethlehem, Pa. , four years ago, and the beds were of clean muledroppings from the coal mines. Mule manure can be had in quantity at ourmule stock yards, which are in nearly every large city in the Middle andSouthern States. Getting it from the mines costs more than it is worth, except as a fancy article; the men will not collect and save it for anyreasonable price. 

=Cellar Manure. =--Many stables have cellars under them into which themanure and urine are dropped at every day's cleaning. These cellars arenot generally cleaned out before a good deal of manure has accumulatedin them, say a few weeks', or a few months', or a winter's gathering, and it is commonly pretty well moistened by the urine. If this manurehas not become too dry and "fire-fanged" in the cellar it is splendidfor mushrooms. We buy a good deal of it, but are particular to rejectthe very dry and white-burned parts. Sometimes the manure from thecow-stables, as well as from the horse-stables, is dropped together intothe cellar; then I would give less for the manure, especially if the cowmanure predominated, because in the working it keeps too cold and wetand pasty; but if there is not cow manure enough to give the mass apasty character it will make capital mushroom beds. Pigs often have therun of the manure-cellar, as is generally the case in farmyards. I wouldnot use any part of this mixed pig manure. Mycelium evades hog manure;besides it is impure and malodorous, and a propagating bed for noxiousinsect vermin. It matters very little what kind of bedding is used, inthe case of cellar manure, but I would not buy it if sawdust or salt hayhad been used as bedding. Neither of these materials, in limitedquantity, is deleterious to the mushrooms; at the same time, they arefar less desirable than straw, field hay, German peat moss, or cornstalks, and there are risks enough in mushroom-growing without courtingany that we can as well avoid. 

=City Stable Manure. =--Around New York this can always be had in anyquantity at a reasonable rate, and it is first-rate manure for mushroombeds. Market gardeners haul in a load of vegetables to market and bringback a load of manure; others may buy and haul home manure in the sameway, or make arrangements with a teamster to do it for them. But thewhole matter of city manure is now so deftly handled by agents, who makea special business of it, that we can get any quantity of manure, from a500 lb bale to an unlimited number of loads, and of most any quality, delivered near or far, inland or coastwise, at a fairly moderate price. It is the city stable manure that nearly all our large market growersuse for their mushroom beds. When they get it at the stables and cart ithome themselves they know what they are handling, and should take onlyfresh horse dung. In ordering it of an agent be particular to arrangefor the freshest and cleanest, pure horse manure. They will get it foryou. We get several hundreds of loads of this selected manure from themevery year for hotbeds, and find it excellent. We also get 1000 to 2000loads of the common New York stable manure a year for our generaloutdoor crops, and it also is capital manure in its way, but not so goodas the selected manure for mushrooms. It is mixed a little and smellsvery rank, and in mushroom beds usually produces a good deal of spuriousfungi. Most all of our largest mushroom growers, Van Siclen of Jamaica, Denton of Woodhaven, Connard of Hoboken, and others, live within easyhauling distance of the city, and are able to select and get the verychoicest manure at a very cheap rate. 

=Baled Manure. =--Within a year or two a good deal of our city horsemanure has been put up in bales and thus shipped and sold. Each balecontains from 350 to nearly 500 lbs, and is made up, pressed and tied inabout the same way as baled hay. The principal advantages of the balesare these: Only the cleanest horse manure is put up in this way; cowmanure, offal, spent hops, or other short or soft manures are notincluded in the bales, nor, on account of shipping considerations, aremalodorous manures of any sort permitted in them. The railroads allowbaled manure to be put off on their platforms, and closer to theirstations than they would allow loose manure; and it often happens thatan agent will send a carload to a railroad station and dump it off thereso that the people around who have only small garden lots can have anopportunity of buying one or more bales, just as they need it, andwithout, as is generally the case, having to buy a whole load when theyneed only half a load. These bales are quite a boon to people who wouldlike to have a small bed of mushrooms in their cellar and who have noother manure. Bring home one or more bales, open them, spread out themanure a little, and when it heats turn it a few times, and it will soonbe ready for use. Or if you do not wish to litter up the place, roll thebales into the cellar, shed, or wherever else you wish to make use ofthem, and mix about one-fourth of their bulk of loam with the manureand make up the bed at once. 

The Board of Health of New York city is very emphatic in its endeavorsto rid the city of any accumulation of manure and, a year ago, had underconsideration a plan to compel the manure agents, for sanitary reasons, to bale the stable manure. And perhaps this is the reason why it is soeasily procured, to wit: A New York gentleman, desirous of engaging inthe mushroom-growing business, writes me: "I get my manure from the cityin bales. All it costs me is the freight to my place at White Plains. "Lucky gentleman! With any amount of the best kind of stable manuregratis, no wonder he wishes to embark in the mushroom ship. 

=Cow Manure. =--This is sometimes used with horse manure in forming thematerials for a mushroom bed, and several European writers are emphaticin advocating its use. But I have tried it time and time again, and invarious ways, and am satisfied that it has no advantage whatever overplain horse manure, if, indeed, it is as good. It is not used by themarket growers in this country. 

The best kind of cow manure is said to be the dry chips gathered fromthe open pastures; these are brought home, chopped up fine and mixedwith horse manure. The time and expense incurred in collecting andchopping these "chips" completely overreach any advantages that might bederived from them, no matter how desirable they may be. The next bestkind of cow manure is that of stall-fed cattle, to which dry food only, as hay and grain, is fed. This is seldom obtainable except in winter, and is then available for spring beds only. This I have used freely. One-third of it to two-thirds of dry horse manure works up very well, heats moderately, retains its warmth a long time, also its moisturewithout any tendency to pastiness; the mycelium travels through itbeautifully, and it bears fine mushrooms. Still, it is no better thanplain horse manure. The poorest kind of cow manure is the fresh manureof cattle fed with green grass, ensilage, and root crops; indeed, suchmanure can not be used alone; it needs to be freely mixed with someabsorbent, as dry loam, German moss, dry horse droppings, and the like, and even then I have utterly failed to perceive its advantages; it is adirty mass to work, and quite cold. 

In the manufacture of spawn, however, cow manure is a requisiteingredient, and here again the manure of dry fed animals is better thanthat of those fed with green and other soft food. But my chief objectionto the use of cow manure in the mushroom beds is that it is a favoritebreeding and feeding place for hosts of pernicious bugs and grubs andearth worms, --creatures that we had better repel from, rather thanencourage in, our mushroom beds. 

=German Peat Moss Stable Manure for Mushroom Beds. =--Although I have notyet had an opportunity of trying this material for mushroom beds, Mr. Gardner, of Jobstown, has great faith in it; so, too, has that prince ofEnglish mushroom growers, Richard Gilbert, of Burghley, who relates hissuccess with it in growing mushrooms in the English garden papers. Thispeat moss is a comparatively new thing in this country, and is used inplace of straw for bedding horses. It is a great absorbent and soaks upmuch of the urine that, were straw used instead, would be likely to passoff into the drains. To this is ascribed its great virtue in mushroomculture. It should be mixed with loam when used for mushroom beds. 

[Illustration: FIG. 20. BALE OF GERMAN PEAT MOSS. ]

=Sawdust Stable Manure for Mushroom Beds. =--This is the manure obtainedfrom stables where sawdust has been used for bedding for the horses. Itis a good absorbent and retains considerable of the stable wettings. Such manure ferments well, makes up nicely into beds, the mycelium runswell in it, and good mushrooms are produced from it. But if I could getany other fairly good manure I wouldn't use it. I remember seeing it atMr. Henshaw's place some years ago. He had bought a quantity of freshstable manure from the Brighton coal yards, where sawdust had been usedfor bedding for the horses, and this he used for his mushroom beds. Iwent back again in a few months to see the bed in bearing, but it wasnot a success. At the same time, some European growers record greatsuccess with sawdust stable manure. George Bolas, Hopton, Wirkeworth, England, sent specimens of mushrooms that he grew on sawdust manure bedsto the editor of the _Garden_, who pronounced them "in every wayexcellent. " Mr. Bolas says: "In making up the bed I mixed aboutone-third of burnt earth with the sawdust, sand, and droppings. Themushrooms were longer in coming up than usual, the bed being in a closeshed, without any heat whatever. They have, however, far exceeded myexpectations. "

Richard Gilbert, of Burghley, also wrote to the _Garden_, April 25, 1885: "There is nothing new in growing mushrooms in sawdust. I have doneit here for years past; that is to say, after it had done service as abed for horses, and got intermixed with their droppings. I have neverbeen able to detect the least difference in size or quality betweenmushrooms grown in sawdust and those produced in the ordinary way. "

=Tree Leaves. =--Forest tree leaves are often used for mushroom beds, sometimes alone, instead of manure, but more frequently mixed with horsemanure to increase the bulk of the fermenting material. Oak tree leavesare the best; quick-rotting leaves, like those of the chestnut, maple, or linden, are not so good, and those of coniferous trees are of no usewhatever. As the leaves must be in a condition to heat readily theyshould be fresh; such are easily secured before winter sets in, but inspring, after lying out under the winter's snow and rain, their"vitality" is mostly gone. But we can secure a large lot of dry leavesin the fall and pile them where they will keep dry until required foruse. As needed we can prepare a part of this pile by wetting the leaves, taking them under cover to a warm south-facing shed, and otherwiseassisting fermentation just as if we were preparing for a hotbed. Whilemoistening the leaves with clean water will induce a good fermentation, wetting them with liquid from the horse-stable urine tanks will cause abrisk heat, and for mushrooms produce more genial conditions. 

Mushroom beds composed in whole or part of fermenting tree leaves shouldbe much deeper than would be necessary were horse manure alone used; forhalf leaves and half manure, say fifteen inches deep; for all leaves, say twenty to thirty inches deep. 

While mushroom spawn will run freely in leaf beds and we can get goodmushrooms from them, my experience has satisfied me that we do not getas fine crops from these beds or any modification of them as from theordinary stable manure beds. And we can not wonder much at this, considering that the wild mushroom is scarcely ever found in theneighborhood of trees or where leaf mold deposits occur. 

=Spent Hops. =--We can make good use of this in one way. If we are shortof good materials for a mushroom bed, we can first make up the bedseight or ten inches deep with fermenting spent hops, and above this laya four or five inch layer of horse manure, or this and loam mixed. Thehops will keep up the warmth, and the manure affords a congenial homefor the mushroom spawn. But we should never use spent hops alone, norso near the surface of the beds that the spawn will have to travelthrough it. 

Spent hops can be had for nothing, and our city brewers even pay apremium to the manure agents to take the hops away. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PREPARATION OF THE MANURE. 

Get as good a quality of fresh horse manure as you can, and insufficient quantity for the amount of bed or beds you wish to make. Nextget it into suitable condition for making up into beds. This can be doneout of doors or under cover of a shed, but preferably in the shed. Outof doors the manure is under the drying influence of sun and wind, andit is also liable to become over-wetted by rain, but under cover we havefull control of its condition. All the manure for beds between July andthe end of October is prepared out of doors on a dry piece of ground, but what is used after the first of November, all through the winter, ishandled in a shed open to the south. During the autumn months we getalong very well with it out of doors; after every turning cover the heapwith strawy litter to save it from the drying influences of sun andwind. Remove this covering when next turned, and lay light woodenshutters on top of it as a precaution against rain. In the shed inwinter the manure is protected against rain and snow and we can alwayswork it conveniently; when the shed is open to the south--as wagon andwood-sheds often are--we get the benefit of the warm sunshine in thedaytime in starting fermentation in the manure, but in the event ofdull, cold weather, cover up the pile quite snugly with straw andshutters to start the heat in it. Altogether, a warm, close shed wouldbe better. 

It seldom happens that one can get all the manure he wants at one time;it accumulates by degrees. This is the case with the market grower whouses many tons, and hauls it home from the city stables a little at atime; also with the private grower, who uses only a few bushels or halfa cord, and has it accumulate for days or weeks from his own stable. Asthe manure accumulates throw it into a pile, straw and all, but not intosuch a big pile that it will heat violently; and particularly observethat it shall not "fire-fang" or "burn" in the heap. If it shows anytendency to do this, turn it over loosely, sprinkle it freely withwater, spread it out a little, and after a few hours, or when it hascooled off nicely, throw it up into a pile again and tread it firmly tokeep it moist and from heating hastily. 

When enough manure has accumulated for a bed, prepare it in thefollowing way: Turn it over, shaking it up loosely and mixing it allwell together. Throw aside the dry, strawy part, also any white "burnt"manure that may be in it, and all extraneous matter, as sticks, stones, old tins, bones, leather straps, rags, scraps of iron, or such othertrash as we usually find in manure heaps, but do not throw out any ofthe wet straw; indeed, we should aim to retain all the straw that hasbeen well wetted in the stable. If the manure is too dry do not hesitateto sprinkle it freely with water, and it will take a good deal of waterto well moisten a heap of dry manure. Then throw it into a compactoblong pile about three or four feet high, and tread it down a little. This is to prevent hasty and violent heating and "burning, " for firmlypacked manure does not heat up so readily or whiten so quickly as does apile loosely thrown together. Leave it undisturbed until fermentationhas started briskly, which in early fall may be in two or three days, or in winter in six to ten days, then turn it over again, shaking it upthoroughly and loosely and keeping what was outside before inside now, and what was inside before toward the outside now; and if there are anyunduly dry parts moisten them as you go along. Trim up the heap into thesame shape as you had before, and again tread it down firmly. Thiscompacting of the pile at every turning reduces the number of requiredturnings. When hot manure is turned and thrown loosely into a pile itregains its great heat so rapidly that it will need turning again withintwenty-four hours, in order to save it from burning, and all practicalmen know that at every turning ammonia is wasted, --the most potent foodof the mushroom. We should therefore endeavor to get along with as fewturnings as possible; at the same time, never allow any part of themanure to burn, even if we have to turn the heap every day. Theseturnings should be continued until the manure has lost its tendency toheat violently, and its hot, rank smell is gone, --usually in about threeweeks' time. If the manure, or any part of it, is too dry at anyturning, the dry part should be sprinkled with water and kept in themiddle of the heap. Plain water is what is generally used for moisteningthe manure, but I sometimes use liquid from the stable tanks, which notonly answers the purpose of wetting the dry materials, but it also is apowerful stimulant and welcome addition to the manure. But the greatestvigilance should be observed to guard against overmoistening the manure;far better fail on the side of dryness than on that of wetness. 

If the manure is too wet to begin with it should be spread out thinlyand loosely and exposed to sun and wind, if practicable, to dry. Dryingby exposure in this way is not as enervating as "burning" in a hotpile, and better have recourse to any method of drying the manure thanuse it wet. If, on account of the weather or lack of convenience fordrying, the manure can not be dried enough, add dry loam, dry sand, dryhalf-rotted leaves, dry peat moss, dry chaff, or dry finely cut hay orstraw, and mix together. 

The proper condition of the manure, as regards dryness or moistness, canreadily be known by handling it. Take a handful of the manure andsqueeze it tight; it should be unctuous enough to hold together in alump, and so dry that you can not squeeze a drop of water out of it. 

Some private gardeners in England lay particular stress upon collectingthe fresh droppings at the stables every day, and spreading them outupon a shed or barn floor to dry, and in this way keeping them dry andfrom heating until enough has accumulated for a bed, when the bed ismade up entirely of this material, or of part of this and part of loam. But market gardeners, the ones whose bread and butter depend upon thecrops they raise, never practice this method, and that patriarch in thebusiness, Richard Gilbert, denounces the practice unstintedly. 

Different growers have different ideas of preparing manure for mushroombeds, but the aim of all is to get it into the best possible conditionwith the least labor and expense, and to guard against depriving it ofany more ammonia than can be helped. See Mr. Gardner's method ofpreparing manure, p. 22. 

=Loam and Manure Mixed. =--Mushroom beds are often formed of loam andmanure mixed together, say one-third or one-fourth part of the wholebeing loam, and the other two-thirds or three-fourths manure; if alarger proportion of loam is used it will render the beds rather coldunless they are made unusually deep. I am not prepared to affirm or denythat this mixed material has any advantages over plain manure; I use itconsiderably every year and with good results; at the same time, I getas good crops from the plain manure beds. But it has many warm friendswho are excellent growers. 

In preparing this mixed material I use fresh sod loam well chopped up, and add it to the manure in this way: First select the manure and throwit into a heap to ferment, as before explained; then after the firstturning cover the heap with a layer of this loam about three or fourinches thick, enough to arrest the steam; at the next turning mix thiscasing of loam with the manure, and when the heap is squared off addanother coating of loam of the same thickness in the same way as before, and so on at each turning until the whole mass is fit for use, and thefull complement of loam, say one-fourth the full bulk, has been added. In this way much of the ammonia that otherwise would be evaporated fromthe manure is arrested and retained. 

Some growers, when they first shake out their fresh manure, add the fullcomplement of loam to it at once and mix them together. Others, again, Mr. Denton, of Woodhaven, for instance, prepare the manure in theordinary way and when ready for use add the quota of loam. I use goodsod loam for two reasons, namely, because it is the very best that canbe used for the purpose, and, also, after being used in the mushroombeds it is a capital material, and in fine condition for use in pottingsoft-wooded plants. But the loam commonly used to mix with the manure isordinary field soil. If the loam is ordinarily moist to begin with, andalso the manure, there is very little likelihood of any of the materialgetting too dry during the preparation. And much less preparation isneeded, for the presence of the loam lessens, considerably, theprobability of hasty, violent fermentation. 

Mr. Withington, of South Amboy, N. J. , uses rather a stinted amount ofloam in his manure. He writes me: "We made up our beds this year with aproportion of loam in the manure, say one part loam to eight partsmanure, but have always used clear manure heretofore, and I think thebeds hold out longer than when only manure is used. "

CHAPTER IX. 

MAKING UP THE MUSHROOM BEDS. 

The place in the cellar, shed, house, or elsewhere, where we intend togrow the mushrooms, should be in readiness as soon as the manure hasbeen well prepared and is in proper condition for use. The bed or bedsshould be made up at once. The thickness of the beds depends a good dealupon circumstances, such as the quality of the manure, --whether it isplain horse manure, or manure and loam mixed together, --or whether thebeds are to be made in heated or unheated buildings, and on the floor oron shelves. Floor beds are generally nine to fifteen inches deep; aboutnine inches in the case of manure alone, in warm quarters, and ten tofourteen inches when manure and loam are used. In cool houses the bedsare made a few inches deeper than this so as to keep up a steady, mildwarmth for a long time. The beds may be made flat, or ridged, or like arounded bank against the wall; but the flat form is the commonest, andthe most convenient where shelves are also used in the same building. Shelf beds are generally nine inches deep; that is, the depth of oneboard. 

In making up the beds, bring in the manure and shake it up loosely andspread it evenly over the bed, beating it down firmly with the back ofthe fork as you go along, and continue in this way until the desireddepth is attained. If it is a floor bed and there is no impediment, asa shelf overhead, tread the manure down firmly and evenly; if the manureis fairly dry and in good condition it will be pretty firm and stillspringy, but if it is too moist and poorly prepared treading will packit together like wet rotten dung. 

Now pierce a hole in the bed and insert a thermometer. There are"ground" or "bottom-heat" thermometers, as gardeners call them, for thispurpose, but any common thermometer will do well enough; and after twoor three days examine this thermometer daily to see what is thetemperature of the manure in the bed. In roomy or airy structures orwhere only a small bed has been made it may, in the meantime, be left inthis condition. But in a tight cellar I find that the warm moisturearising from the bed condenses in the atmosphere and settles on the topof the manure, making it perfectly wet. In order to counteract this, assoon as the bed is made up I spread some straw or hay over it loosely;the moisture settles on the covering and does not reach through to themanure. Beware of overcovering, as such induces overheating inside thebed. At spawning time remove this covering. The bed will then havebecome so cool (80° or 90°) that there is very little evaporation fromit, consequently little danger of surface-wetting. 

=The Proper Temperature. =--This, in mushroom beds, depends upon thematerials of which they are composed, their thickness, how they arebuilt, the situation they are in, and other circumstances. If the manurewas good and fresh to begin with, carefully prepared and used as soon asready, the bed in a few days will warm up to 125°, or a little more orless, and this is very good. My best beds have always shown a maximumheat of between 120° and 125°. Had the manure been used a few days toosoon the heat would rise higher, perhaps to 135°, but this is too warm;in this case I would fork over the surface of the bed a few inches deepto let the heat escape, and after a couple of days compact the bedagain. Boring holes all over the surface of the beds with a crowbar isthe common way of reducing a too high temperature, and when the heat hassubsided sufficiently fill up these holes with finely pulverized dryloam. With loam we can fill them up perfectly, but we can not do thiswith manure, and if left open they remain as wet sweat holes that arevery deleterious to the spreading spawn. 

A too high temperature in the beds should be sedulously guarded against, for it wastes the substance of the manure, dries up the interior of thebed, and the mushroom crop must necessarily be starved and short. 

Provided that the manure is fresh and good and has been well prepared, if the beds, after being made up, do not indicate more than 100° or 110°no alarm need be felt, for excellent crops will likely be produced bythese beds. The thicker the beds are the higher the heat will probablyrise in them. Firmly built beds warm up more slowly than do looselybuilt ones, and they keep their heat longer. If the materials are quitecool when built solidly into beds they are not apt to become very warmafterward. But I always like to make up the beds with moderately warmmanure. 

It sometimes happens that circumstances may prevent the making up of thebeds just as soon as the manure is in prime condition, and even afterthey are made up the heat does not rise above 75° or 80°. In such a caseif the manure is otherwise in good condition and fresh, it is wellenough and a good crop may be expected. But if the manure, to beginwith, had been a little stale, rotten and inert, I certainly would nothesitate to at once break up the bed, add some fresh horse droppings toit, mix thoroughly, then make it up again. Or a fair heat may be startedin such a stale bed by sprinkling it over rather freely with urine fromthe barnyard, then forking the surface over two or three inches deep andafterward compacting it slightly with the back of the fork. Spread alayer of hay, straw, or strawy stable litter a few inches deep over thebed till the heat rises. If the manure had been moist enough thissprinkling should not be resorted to, but the fresh droppings addedinstead. When it is applied, however, great care should be taken toprevent overheating; a lessening or entire removal of the strawycovering, and again firmly compacting the surface of the bed will reducethe temperature. Some saltpeter, or nitrate of soda, an ounce to threegallons of liquid, will encourage the spread of the mycelium after thespawn is inserted; a much stronger solution of these salts can now beused than would be safe to apply after the mycelium is running in thebed. 

When loam and manure mixed together comprise the materials of which thebed is made, the temperature is not likely to rise so high as whenmanure alone is used, but this matters not so long as the materials ofwhich the bed is composed are sweet and fresh and not over-moist. But ifthe materials are cold and stale treat as recommended for a manure bed, always bearing in mind that it is better to have a cold bed that isfairly dry than one that is wet, or, indeed, a warm one that is wet. 

Mr. Withington, of South Amboy, has a good word to say for beds of a lowtemperature. He writes me: "Our beds kept in good bearing two months, though they have borne in a desultory way a month longer. Our best bedthis season was one that was kept at an even temperature. The manurenever rose above 75° when made up, and decreased to about 60° soon afterspawning. Kept the house at 55°. "

CHAPTER X. 

MUSHROOM SPAWN. 

What is mushroom spawn? Is it a seed or a root? Do you plant it or sowit, or how do you prepare it? are some of the questions asked me now andagain. To the general public there seems to be some great mysterysurrounding this spawn question; in fact, it appears to be the chiefenigma connected with mushroom-growing. Now, the truth is, there is nomystery at all about the matter. What practical mushroom growers callspawn, 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 asmushrooms is the fruit of the mushroom plant. The spawn is representedby a delicate white mold-like network of whitish threads which traversethe soil or manure. Under favorable circumstances it grows and spreadsrapidly, and in due time produces fruit, or mushrooms as we call them. The mushrooms bear myriads of spores which are analogous to seeds, andthese spores become diffused in the atmosphere and fall upon the ground. It is reasonable to suppose that they are the origin of the spawn whichproduces the natural mushrooms in the fields, also the spawn we find inmanure heaps. But we never have been able to produce spawn artificiallyfrom 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 weget the spawn? By propagation by division. We take the mushroom plant orspawn, as we call it, and break it up into pieces, and plant thesepieces separately in a prepared bed of manure or other material, underconditions favorable for their growth, and we find that these pieces ofspawn develop into vigorous plants that bear fruit (mushrooms) in abouttwo months from planting time. When the spawn has borne its full crop offruit it dies. 

Well, then, if we can not produce spawn from spores, and the spawn inthe beds that have borne mushrooms has died out, how are we to get thespawn for our future crops? is a question that may suggest itself to theinexperienced. By securing it when it is in its most vigorous condition, which is before it begins to show signs of forming mushrooms, and dryingit, and keeping it dry till required for use. But in order to secure thespawn we need to take and keep with it the manure to which it adheres orin which it is spreading. In this way it can be kept in good conditionfor several years and without its vitality being perceptibly impaired. Keeping it dry merely suspends its growth; as soon as it is againsubmitted to favorable conditions of moisture and heat its pristineactivity returns. 

Mushroom spawn can be obtained at any seed store. Our seedsmen alwayskeep it in stock, both the brick (English), and the flake (French)spawn. It is retailed in quantities of one pound or more, and as thearticle is perfectly dry it can be easily sent by mail in smallquantities. 

The seedsmen import it from Europe every year along with their seeds. Aprominent Boston seedsman writes me: "We get our supply through theLondon wholesale seedsmen, for the sake of convenience and cheaper oceanfreight, etc. Coming with a shipment of other goods and on same bill oflading brings the freight charges down. The low price at which mushroomspawn is sold in quantity can only be maintained with low freightrates, as there is a duty here of 20% on the article. "

[Illustration: FIG. 21. BRICK SPAWN. ]

By direct inquiry of the leading importers in different cities I findthat we import about 4500 lbs of French or flake spawn, and 4000bushels, or 64, 000 lbs of English or brick spawn, and that fully a halfof this whole importation is handled by the seedsmen of New York city. In New York one firm alone, who make a specialty of supplying marketgardeners, has in one year imported 1500 bushels of brick spawn. But thevicinity of New York is the great mushroom-growing center of thecountry, also the best market for mushrooms in the country. One gardenerat Jamaica, L. I. , bought 1000 lbs of brick spawn at one time, and aneighbor of his bought 400 lbs; this shows what a large quantity ofspawn market gardeners require. And the demand this year isunprecedented; some of our leading importers had sold out their supplybefore the first of November. And it is not private growers so much asmarket growers who are the cause of this; the market men find there ismoney in growing mushrooms and they are going into it. 

Spawn comes in the form of dry, hard, solid manure bricks, and also inthe form of flakes of half rotted strawy manure. These bricks and flakesare completely permeated with the mushroom mycelium. 

The brick spawn is commonly known as English spawn, and what is importedinto this country is made in England, mostly about London. The bricksmade by the different manufacturers vary a little in size and weight; insome cases ten bricks go to the bushel, in others fourteen, and inothers sixteen. This last is the commonest sized brick, and weighsexactly a pound, and measures about eight and one-half inches long, fiveand one-fourth inches wide, and one and one-fourth inches thick; it iswhat the London spawn makers call a 9x6x2 inch brick, but it shrinks indrying. In retailing brick spawn in this country it is sold by weightand not by measure. 

Mill-track mushroom spawn is advertised by some of our seedsmen, butwhat they sell under this name is only the ordinary English brick spawn. One of our prominent seed firms who advertise it write me: "Genuinemill-track spawn used to be the best in England, but it has beensuperseded, although European gardeners still call for English spawnunder the name of 'mill-track. '" The real mill-track spawn is thenatural spawn that has spread through the thoroughly amalgamated horsedroppings in mill-tracks or the cleanings from mill-tracks. It isusually sold in large, irregular, somewhat soft lumps, and is muchesteemed by spawn makers for impregnating their bricks, but nowadays, that horses have given place to steam as a motive power in mills, wehave no further supply of mill-track spawn for use in spawning ourmushroom beds. We do not feel this loss, however, as the spawn nowmanufactured by our best makers will produce as good a crop ofmushrooms as the old mill-track natural spawn used to do. 

The flake spawn is what is generally known as French spawn, and isimported into this country from France. But the manufacture of "French"spawn for sale, however, is not strictly confined to France. It is putup in two ways, namely, nicely packed in thin wooden boxes, eachcontaining two or three pounds of spawn, and also loose in bulk when itis sold by weight or measure. 

[Illustration: FIG. 22. FLAKE OR FRENCH SPAWN. ]

Virgin spawn is what we call natural spawn or wild spawn; that is, thespawn that occurs naturally in the fields, in manure piles, orelsewhere, and without any artificial aid. It is supposed to be produceddirectly from the mushroom spores, and is not a new growth of survivingparts of old spawn that may have lived over in the ground. It is farmore vigorous than "made" spawn, and spawn makers always endeavor to getit to use in spawning the artificial spawn. It is seldom used forspawning mushroom beds because not easy to obtain. Now and again we comeupon a lot of it in a manure pile; it looks like a netted mass of whitestrings traversing the manure. As soon as discovered secure all you canfind, bring it indoors to a loft, shed, or room, and spread it out todry; after drying it thoroughly keep it dry and preserve and use it asyou would French spawn, for it is the best kind of flake spawn. In usingvirgin spawn for spawning beds I have obtained larger and heaviermushrooms than from "made" spawn, and the beds lasted longer in goodbearing, but the weight of the whole crop has not been more than fromartificial spawn. 

=How to Keep Spawn. =--Spawn should be kept in a dry, airy place, somewhat dark, if convenient, and in a temperature between 35° and 65°. Wherever things will "must, " as in a cellar, cupboard against a wall, orin a close, damp building, is a very poor place for keeping spawn. Ifthe spawn is perfectly dry and kept in a dry, airy place, and not inlarge bulk, and covered, it will bear a high temperature with apparentimpunity, but whenever dampness, even of the atmosphere, is coupled withheat, the mycelium begins to grow, and this, in the storeroom, isruinous to the spawn. Judging from our natural mushroom crops, the spawnfor which must be alive in the ground in winter, one concludes thatfrost should not be injurious to the artificial spawn, still myexperience is that hard frost destroys the vitality of both brick andflake spawn. And this is one reason why I get our full supply of spawnin the fall and keep it myself rather than submit it to the mercy of theseed store. 

=New Versus Old Spawn. =--How long spawn may be kept without its vitalitybecoming impaired is an unsettled question, but there is no doubt, ifproperly kept, it will remain good for several years. But I can notimpress too strongly upon the reader the importance of using freshspawn. Do not use any old spawn at any price; do not accept it gratisand ruin your prospect of success by using it. It takes three monthsfrom the time when the manure is gathered for the beds until themushrooms are harvested. Can you, therefore, afford to spend this time, and undergo the care and trouble and expense, and court a failure byusing old spawn? We have risks enough with new spawn, let alone oldspawn. I do not use any more old spawn, but I have used it often andlong enough to be convinced of its general worthlessness, unlesspreserved with the greatest care. 

=How to Distinguish Good from Poor Spawn. =--This is a very difficultmatter, notwithstanding what people may say to the contrary. If we couldpositively tell good from bad spawn, we would never use bad spawn, and, therefore, with ordinary care, have very few failures inmushroom-growing; for good spawn is the root of success in thisbusiness. Spawn differs very much in its appearance; sometimes thebricks show very little appearance of the presence of spawn, and stillare perfectly good; and again, we may get bricks that are pretty wellinterlaced and clouded with bluish white mold or fine threads, and this, too, is good. When the bricks are freely pervaded with pronounced whitethreads this is no sign that the spawn is bad. Bricks dried as hard as aboard may be perfectly good; so, too, may be those that arecomparatively soft. Mushroom spawn should have a decided smell ofmushrooms, and whatever cobweb-like mold may be apparent should be of afresh bluish white color, and the fine threads clear white. Prominentyellowish threads or veins are a sign that the mycelium had started togrow and been killed. Distinct white mold patches on the surface of thebricks indicate the presence of some other fungous parasite on themushroom mycelium; the absence of any mushroom smell in the spawnindicates its worthlessness and that the mycelium is dead. One familiarwith mushroom spawn can tell with considerable certainty "very living"spawn and "very dead" spawn, but I am far from convinced that any onecan decide unhesitatingly in the case of middling or weak spawn. 

Mr. S. Henshaw, in Henderson's Handbook of Plants, tells us: "Thequality of the spawn may be very easily detected by the mushroom-likesmell, . . . And I should have no hesitation in picking out good spawn inthe dark. " Sanguine, surely, but I have tried it and found the testwanting. M. Lachaume says that good spawn shows "an abundance ofbluish-white filaments well fitted together, and giving off a stronglymarked odor of mushrooms. All those portions which show traces of whiteor yellow mold or have a floury appearance, should be rejected anddestroyed. " Mr. Wright says: "A brick may be a mass of moldiness, andyet be quite worthless; and if the mold has a spotted appearance, as iffine white sand had been dredged on and through the mass, it is certainthere is no mushroom-growing power there. . . . If thick threads passthrough the mass and there are signs of miniature tubercles on them, then the spawn may be regarded as too far gone. . . . Clusters of whitespecks on the spawn denote sterility. "

Mr. A. D. Cowan, of New York, who has the reputation of being anexcellent judge of mushroom spawn, writes me: "To correctly judge thequality of brick spawn by its appearance requires experience in handlingit, and a trained eye which enables one quickly to detect good from bad, fair to middling. As two lots seldom come exactly or nearly alike inappearance, it is hardly possible to give precise rules to follow, excepting the never-failing requisite which the spawn must possess to begood, namely, the moldy appearance on the surface, the more the better, without showing threads. Too many of these to a given space are a sureindication of exhausted vitality, arising generally from the bricksbeing heaped together when in process of manufacture, before they aresufficiently dried. Healthy bricks are usually of a dusty brown color, and of light weight. Black colored spawn is to be avoided, as a rule, and when the black appearance is very prevalent in a cargo of bricks itis a strong indication that the spawn has not run its course; and as itis not expected to do so after it has reached the hands of the retailerit is economy to cast it aside. Some persons break a brick into severalpieces to see how it looks inside. To the experienced eye this is notnecessary, or even to lay hands upon it, as the outward moldy appearanceis the best of all evidence of its healthy vitality, and this neverexists if the bricks have lost their germinating power, excepting, ofcourse, where they have been kept damp, and the spawn has spent itspower, which is detected by the white threads appearing in greatquantity. "

=American-made Spawn. =--So far as I have been able to find out bydiligent inquiry, mushroom spawn is not made for sale in this country. But I am informed that a few growers do save and use their own flakespawn. Some of our principal growers, Van Siclen, Gardner, and Henshaw, for instance, in time past attempted to make their own spawn, but withonly partial success, and now they confine themselves to the importedarticle. But this state of affairs can not long continue. The demandhere for fresh mushrooms is so great, the industry of mushroom-growingso important, the price of imported spawn so high, and the quantity offoreign spawn imported annually into this country is so large, that, before long, we hope some one will find it to his advantage to make aspecialty of growing mushroom spawn in this country to supply theAmerican market. There is no practical operation in connection with thecultivation of mushrooms so little known or understood by the generalgrower as the growing (or "making, " as it is commonly called) andpreserving of mushroom spawn. General cultivators in England and France(outside of the Paris caves) do not make their own spawn; it is adistinct branch of the business, and carried on by specialists who growmushrooms for sale in winter, and spawn in summer. 

The time and attention required to produce a small quantity offirst-class spawn are worth more than the cost of the spawn at the seedstore. In order to make spawn profitably we must make it in largequantity, and we need not attempt to make it unless we have goodmaterials and conditions for its proper preparation, and will give itevery attention possible for its best development. 

Because spawn may be made in America is no reason whatever why theAmerican people will buy it. We must produce, at least, as good anarticle as the best in Europe before we can find countenance in our homemarket. It is not the shape of the manure brick, its size, fine finish, hardness, softness, or freshness, that counts in this case; it is thefullness and vitality of the mass of mycelium or mushroom plant that iscontained within it. 

HOW TO MAKE BRICK SPAWN. 

As the making of brick spawn for sale is not yet an American industry, but almost entirely confined to England, I think it best to restrictmyself to describing how it is made in England. Mr. John F. Barter, ofLancefield street, London, is one of the most successful mushroomgrowers and spawn makers in Great Britain. He writes me that he confineshimself entirely to the mushroom business; he makes his living by it. Hegrows mushrooms in the winter months and makes spawn in the summermonths; he employs men for mushroom bed making from August until March, then, to keep on the same hands during summer, he makes spawn for sale. He grows for and sells in the London market about 21, 000 pounds ofmushrooms a year, and in summer makes some 10, 000 bushels, equal to160, 000 pounds, of brick spawn for sale. The amount of spawn made in ayear by this one manufacturer is about three times as much as the totalannual importation of mushroom spawn of all kinds into this country. Andhe is only one maker among several. This fact alone must convince usthat mushroom-growing is carried on to a vastly greater extent inEuropean countries than it is here, where we have as good facilities asthey have, and an immensely better market. 

The manner of making the spawn differs a little with the differentmanufacturers, and no one can become proficient in it without practicalknowledge. I asked Mr. Barter if he thought spawn could be madeprofitably in this country, paying, as we do, $1. 50 a day for laborers, and without any certainty of the same men staying with us permanently. He writes me: "Uncertain labor would be of no use. Of course the wagesyou pay would not affect it much, as I pay nearly as much as that for myleading men. But to begin with, you must have a man that has had someexperience. "

About the simplest and best way of making brick spawn that I finddescribed is the following from _The Gardeners' Assistant_. I may herestate that Robert Thompson, the author of this work, was for many yearsthe superintendent of the Royal Horticultural Society's gardens atChiswick, near London, and, in his day, was regarded as without a peerin practical horticulture, and lived in the midst of the market gardensof London and the principal mushroom-growing district. 

"Fresh horse droppings, cow dung, and a little loam mixed and beaten upwith as much stable drainings as may be necessary to reduce the whole tothe consistence of mortar. It may then be spread on the floor of an openshed, and when somewhat firm it may be cut into cakes of six inchessquare. These should be placed on edge in a dry, airy place, and mustbe frequently turned and protected from rain. When half dry make a holein the broadside of each, large enough to admit of about an inch squareof good old spawn being inserted so deep as to be a little below thesurface; close it with some moist material the same as used in makingthe bricks. When the bricks are nearly dry make, on a dry bottom, alayer nine inches thick of horse dung prepared as for a hotbed, and onthis pile the bricks rather openly. Cover with litter so that the steamand heat of the layer of dung may circulate among the bricks. Thetemperature, however, should not rise above 60°; therefore, if it islikely to do so, the covering must be reduced accordingly. The spawnwill soon begin to run through the bricks, which should be frequentlyexamined whilst the process of spawning is going on, and when, onbreaking, the spawn appears throughout pretty abundantly, like a whitemold, the process has gone far enough. If allowed to proceed the spawnwould form threads and small tubercles, which is a stage too faradvanced for the retention of its vegetative powers. Therefore, when thespawn is observed to pervade the bricks throughout like a white mold, and before it assumes the thread-like form, it should be removed andallowed to dry in order to arrest the further progress of vegetationtill required for use. It ought to be kept in a dark and perfectly dryplace. " I would add, do not keep it where it is apt to become musty ormoldy in summer; also keep it in as cool a dry place as possible insummer, and always above 35° in winter. 

These other recipes are also given:

"1. Horse droppings one part, cow dung one-fourth, loam one twentieth. 

"2. Fresh horse droppings mixed with short litter one part, cow dungone-third, and a small portion of loam. 

"3. Equal parts of horse dung, cow dung, and sheep's dung, with theaddition of some rotten leaves or old hotbed dung. 

"4. Horse dung one part, cow dung two parts, sheep's dung one part. 

"5. Horse droppings from the roads one part, cow dung two parts, mixedwith a little loam. 

"6. Horse dung, cow dung, and loam, in equal parts. "

From the above it appears that horse dung and cow dung are theprincipals in spawn bricks; the loam is added for the purpose of makingthe other materials hold together; it also absorbs the ammonia, whichotherwise would pass off. 

=J. Burton's Method. = From _The Kitchen and Market Garden_. --Make thespawn in early spring. As cow manure is the principal ingredient used inmaking the bricks this should be secured before the animals get anygreen food. Store it on the floor of an open, dry, airy shed, and turnit every few days for a week or two. Then add an equal part of thefollowing: Fresh horse droppings, a little loam, and chopped straw, mixed together. "The whole should then be worked well together and thentrodden down, after which it may be allowed to remain for a few days, when it will be required to be turned two or three times a week. If theweather be fine and dry the mass will soon be in a fit condition formolding into bricks, which process can be performed by using a mold inthe same way as the brick makers, or, . . . The manure may be spreadevenly on the floor to a thickness of six inches, and then be firmlytrodden and beaten down evenly with the back of the spade. It shouldthen be lined out to the required size of the bricks, and be cut with asharp spade or turfing iron. In a few days the bricks will besufficiently dry to handle, when they should be set up edgeways to drythoroughly, and if exposed to the sun for two or three days they willbe ready to receive the spawn. In introducing the spawn two holes largeenough to admit a piece of spawn as big as a pigeon's egg should be cutin each brick at equal distances. This should be well beaten in and thesurface made even with a little manure. The bricks should then becollected together in a heap and covered with enough short manure tocause a gentle heat, being careful that there is no rank heat or steamto kill the spawn. This must be carefully attended to until the spawn isfound to have penetrated through the whole of the bricks, after whichthey should be stacked away in any convenient dry place. "

HOW TO MAKE FRENCH (flake) SPAWN. 

I can not do better than to let a practical Frenchman engaged in thebusiness tell this story. In Vol. XIII of the London _Garden_ I find anEnglish translation of M. Lachaume's book, "The Cave Mushroom, " and thiscomment by the editor: "The most complete account of the cave culture ofmushrooms which has been published by any cultivator on the spot wellacquainted with the subject is that recently published by M. Lachaume. "

Lachaume says: "The best spawn to use is what is called 'virgin spawn';that is to say, which has not yet produced mushrooms. In this countrythis kind of spawn may be procured of any respectable nurseryman, underthe name of 'French spawn. ' It differs from English spawn by being inthe form of small tufty cakes, instead of in compact blocks. Largemushroom growers, however, always provide themselves with their ownspawn by taking it from a bed which is just about to produce its crop, or which has already produced a few small mushrooms. . . . It is true thatby thus 'breeding in and in, ' as it were, the mushrooms show a tendencyto deteriorate after a time; new spawn must therefore be obtained assoon as any signs of deterioration begin to manifest themselves. "

=Making French Virgin Spawn. =--Condensed from Lachaume's book onmushrooms. Take five or six barrow loads of horse droppings that havelain in a heap for some time, and lost their heat, and mix them withone-fourth of their bulk of short stable litter. Then, in April, open atrench two feet wide, twenty inches deep, and length to suit, at thefoot of, but eight inches distant from, a wall facing north. In thebottom of the trench spread a layer three to four inches deep of choppedstraw, then an equally thick layer of the prepared manure, all pressedfirmly by treading it down. The two layers must now be gently watered, and then another double layer of chopped straw and droppings must belaid, trodden down and watered, and so on until the top of the trench isreached. The bed ought to rise above the level of the ground and berounded off like the top of a trunk. To prevent excessive dampness fromheavy rain cover the mound with a thick layer of stable litter. Threemonths after filling the trench it should be opened at the side or end. If the pieces of manure are well covered with masses of bluish-whitefilaments, giving off the odor of mushrooms, the operation hassucceeded, and the spawn is fit for use or for drying to preserve forfuture use. But if the threads are only sparingly scattered through themass, the trench should be covered up again and left for another month. In saving the spawn the flakes of manure containing the largest amountof spawn filaments should be retained, and those showing a brownappearance rejected. In order to facilitate the drying of the spawn theflakes should be broken into pieces, weighing from one to two pounds;they are then placed in a well ventilated shed, but they must not bepiled upon each other. Properly prepared and dried this spawn keeps goodfor ten years. 

=A Second Method= (by Lachaume). "This is generally adopted by mushroomgrowers. The formation of the spawn is accelerated by adding pieces ofold spawn here and there. . . . At the beginning of April we must choose apiece of ground situated at the foot of a wall facing north. . . . The soilought to be very open and light rather than heavy, so as to avoiddampness. Taking advantage of a fine day, we open a trench sixteeninches wide and at about eight inches from the foot of the wall, and ofa length adapted to the quantity of spawn we desire to produce. Theearth is thrown out on the side opposite the wall. Manure which has beenprepared for a mushroom bed, and has just come into condition is thenfilled into the trench, leaving, however, a space at one end of it abouttwo feet and six inches in length for the formation of a mushroom bed, which is made by tossing the manure about and shaking it up with thehands, after which it is pressed down with the hands and knees. As soonas the layer of manure reaches six inches in thickness we place alongthe edge a number of lumps of spawn at about one foot apart. These lumpsare placed level with the manure on the edge facing the wall. Thisportion of the surface of the manure ought to be raised vertically, andshould lean against the earthen wall of the trench. The other half ofthe surface ought to slope gently toward the wall, leaving a space ofthree or four inches between it and the side of the trench, so that itmay be trimmed. The lumps of spawn on this surface should be placed alittle backward, so that they may not be broken when the bed is trimmed. The bed is then covered with more manure, until the first lumps of spawnare buried three or four inches deep. A second row of lumps of spawn isthen inserted, as described in the directions for making the first row, and the bed is filled up level with the surface of the soil. It isfinished by covering it up with a layer of fine, dry soil three or fourinches thick. The spawn ought to be very dry, otherwise we shall get apremature crop of mushrooms instead of fresh spawn. At the end of sixweeks or a couple of months the new spawn ought to make its appearance, a fact which we may learn by opening the bed. One sign, which will saveus the trouble of opening up the beds, is the appearance of youngmushrooms on the surface. The layer of earth is first removed, and thenthe cakes of spawn are treated as described in the directions given forthe first method of making spawn. "

=Third Method= (by Lachaume). "By filling in a trench like thatdescribed in the first method, by a series of layers of one-third ofpigeon or fowl guano, and two-thirds of short manure, containing a largeproportion of spent horse droppings, treading it down firmly, wateringit if it is too dry, and finishing up with a layer of soil, as describedalready, we may, at the end of a couple of months, or even a littlelonger, procure a supply of well-formed cakes of spawn of excellentquality, which may be used in the ordinary manner. "

From Mr. Robinson's "Mushroom Culture. " "This (French) spawn is obtainedby preparing a little bed, as if for mushrooms, in the ordinary way, andspawning it with morsels of virgin spawn, if that is obtainable; andthen when the spawn has spread through it, the bed is broken up and usedfor spawning beds in the caves, or dried and preserved for sale. "

From Mr. Wright's book on mushrooms. "French spawn . . . Is contained inflakes of manure. Neither is it virgin spawn, nor derived immediatelyfrom it, . . . But is spawn taken from one bed for impregnating another. "

=Relative Merits of Flake and Brick Spawn. =--The flake or French spawncosts about three times as much as the brick or English spawn, and, asit is so much whiter with mycelium than is the brick spawn, manybelieve that it is more potent and well worth the additional cost. Inspawning the beds I use two pounds of flake spawn to plant the samespace for which I would use five pounds of brick spawn, and this gives acapital crop, with number of mushrooms a little in favor of the flakespawn, but on account of the larger size of the mushrooms the weight ofcrop is considerably in favor of the brick spawn. And I find morecertainty of a crop in the case of the brick spawn than in the other. 

Regarding the respective merits of brick and flake spawn, Mr. Barter, inresponse to my inquiry, writes me: "I have tried them both, and knowbrick spawn to be far the best. You see, I do nothing but this mushroombusiness for a living, so, of course, would use the best kind of spawnfor my crop. Generally the French spawn produces one-third lessmushrooms than does the brick spawn from the same length of bed, besides, those from the brick spawn are by far the heaviest andfleshiest. "

I would here observe that Mr. Barter's remarks apply more to ridge bedsout of doors than beds in the cellar or mushroom house. And it is odd, but true, that the flake spawn does not produce as good results inoutdoor beds as it does in those under cover. 

CHAPTER XI. 

SPAWNING THE BEDS. 

After the mushroom bed is made up it should, within a few days, warm toa temperature of 110° to 120°. Carefully observe this, and never spawn abed when the heat is rising, or when it is warmer than 100°, but alwayswhen it is on the decline and under 90°. In this there is perfectsafety. Have a ground thermometer and keep it plunged in the bed; bypulling it out and looking at it one can know exactly the temperature ofthe bed. Have a few straight, smooth stakes, like short walking canes, and stick the end of these into the bed, twelve to twenty feet apart; bypulling them out and feeling them with the hand one can tell prettyclosely what the temperature of the bed is. 

All practical mushroom growers know that if the temperature of a twelveinch thick bed at seven inches from the surface is 100°, that within aninch of the surface of the bed will only be about 95° indoors, and 85°to 90° out of doors. Also, that when the heat of the manure is on thedecline it falls quite rapidly, five, often ten degrees, a day, till itreaches about 75°, and between that and 65° it may rest for weeks. 

Some years ago I gave considerable attention to this matter of spawningbeds at different temperatures. Spawn planted as soon as the bed wasmade (five days after spawning the heat in interior of bed ran up to123°) yielded no mushrooms, the mycelium being killed. The same was thecase in all beds where the spawn had been planted before the heat in thebeds had attained its maximum (120° or over). Where the heat in themiddle of the bed never reached 115°, the spawn put in when the bed wasmade, and molded over the same day, yielded a small crop of mushrooms. Abed in which the heat was declining was spawned at 110°; this bore avery good crop, and at 100° and under to 65° good crops in every casewere secured, with several days' delay in bearing in the case of thelowest temperatures. But notwithstanding these facts, my advice to allbeginners in mushroom growing is, wait until the heat of the bed is onthe decline and fallen to at least 90°, before inserting the spawn. 

Writing to me about spawning his beds, Mr. Withington, of New Jersey, says: "I believe a bed spawned at 60° to 70°, and kept at 55° after themushrooms appear, will give better results than one spawned at a highertemperature, say 90°. "

[Illustration: FIG. 23. BRICK SPAWN CUT IN PIECES FOR PLANTING. ]

=Preparing the Spawn. =--If brick spawn is used cut up the bricks(standard size) into ten or twelve pieces with a sharp hatchet, andavoid, as much as possible, making many crumbs, as is the case generallywhen a hammer or mallet is used in breaking the bricks. Extra largepieces of spawn are apt to produce large clumps of mushrooms, but thisis not always an advantage, as when many mushrooms grow together in aclump they are apt to be somewhat undersized, and in gathering we cannot pluck them all out clean enough so as not to leave a part of the"root" in the ground to poison the balance of the clump, in cases whereseveral or many of them spring from one common base. 

=Inserting the Spawn. =--When brick spawn is used plant the lumps aboutan inch deep under the surface of the manure, and about ten inches aparteach way. If the spawn looks very good, and the lumps are large do notplant them quite so close as when the spawn shows less mycelium in it, and the lumps are small. Never use a dibber in planting spawn; simplymake a hole in the manure with the fingers, insert the lump and cover itover at once, and as soon as the bed has been planted firm it well allover. Although the lumps are buried only an inch deep under the manure, we have to make a hole three or four inches deep to push the lump intoto get it buried. 

French or flake spawn is inserted in much the same way and at about thesame distance, only, instead of cutting it up into lumps, we merelybreak it into flaky pieces about three inches long by an inch thick, andin planting it in the beds, in place of pushing it into the hole, lay inthe flake on its flat side and at once cover it. 

Many growers plant spawn a good deal deeper than I do, but I have neverfound any advantage in deep planting. In moderately warm beds, or bedsthat are likely to retain their heat for a considerable time, I amsatisfied that shallow planting is better than deep planting. When wewant to mold over our beds soon after spawning them, shallow planting isto be recommended. But if the beds are only 75° to 78°, before beingspawned; then I think deep planting is better than shallow planting, because the genial temperature gives the mycelium a better start in lifethan would the cooler manure nearer the surface. 

If there is any likelihood of the surface manure getting wet from thecondensed moisture of the atmosphere, I would again cover over the bedswith some hay or straw, and let it remain on until molding time. And ifthe bed is a little sluggish, --that is, cool, --this covering will helpin keeping it warm. Outside beds should be molded over in three or fourdays after spawning; inside beds in eight to ten days. 

=Steeped Spawn. =--As brick spawn is so hard and dry I have tried theeffect of steeping it in tepid water before planting; some pieces weremerely dipped in the water, and others allowed to soak in the pailsone-half, one, five, and ten hours. The effect was prejudicial in everyinstance and ruinous in the case of the long-soaked pieces. 

=Flake Spawn. =--"This is produced by breaking up the brick spawn intopieces about two inches square and mixing them in a heap of manure thatis fermenting gently. After lying in this heap about three weeks it willbe found one mass of spawn, and just in the right condition for runningvigorously all through the bed in a very short time. . . . When flake spawnis used the appearance of the crop is from two to three weeks earlierthan when brick spawn is used. "--Mr. Henshaw, in first edition of"Henderson's Handbook of Plants. " I have tried this method and given itcareful attention, but the results were inferior to those obtained whereplain, common brick spawn had been used at once. 

In all my practice I have found that any disturbance of the spawn whenin active growth which would cause a breaking, exposing, or arresting ofthe threads of the mycelium has always had a weakening influence uponit. I have transplanted pieces of working spawn from one bed to another, as the French growers do, but am satisfied that I get better crops andlarger mushrooms from beds spawned with dry spawn than from beds plantedwith working spawn from any other beds. 

CHAPTER XII. 

LOAM FOR THE BEDS. 

In growing mushrooms we need loam for casing the beds after they arespawned, topdressing the bearing beds when they first show signs ofexhaustion, filling up the cavities in the surface of the beds caused bythe removal of the mushroom stumps, and for mixing with manure to formthe beds. The selection of soil depends a good deal on what kind of soilwe have at hand, or can readily obtain. 

The best kind of loam for every purpose in connection withmushroom-growing is rich, fresh, mellow soil, such as florists eagerlyseek for potting and other greenhouse purposes. In early fall I gettogether a pile of fresh sod loam, that is, the top spit from a pasturefield, but do not add any manure to it. Of course, while this contains agood deal of grassy sod there is much fine soil among it, and this iswhat I use for mushrooms. Before using it I break up the sods with aspade or fork, throw aside the very toughest parts of them, and use thefiner earthy portion, but always in its rough state, and never sifted. The green, soddy parts that are not too rough are allowed to remain inthe soil, for they do no harm whatever, either in arresting the myceliumor checking the mushrooms, and there is no danger that the grass wouldgrow up and smother the mushrooms. 

Common loam from an open, well-drained fallow field is good, and, if thesoil is naturally rich, excellent for any purpose. But do not take itfrom the wet parts of the fields. Reject all stones, rough clods, tussocks, and the like. Such loam may be used at once. 

Ordinary garden soil is used more frequently than any other sort, andaltogether with highly satisfactory results. The greatest objection Ihave to it is the amount of insects it is apt to contain on account ofits often repeated heavy manurings. 

Roadside dirt, whether loamy or gritty, may also be used with goodresults. If free from weeds, sticks, stones and rough drift, it may beused at once, but it is much better to stack it in a pile to rot for afew months before using. 

Sandy soil, such as occurs in the water-shed drifts along the roads andwhere it has been washed into the fields, is much inferior to stifferand more fibrous earth. 

I have used the rich dark colored soil from slopes and dry hollows inwoods, and, odd though it may appear, as mushrooms do not naturally growin woods, with success. But it is not as good as loam from the openfield. 

Peat soil or swamp muck that has been composted for two or three yearshas failed to give me good returns. The mushrooms will come up throughit all right, but they do not take kindly to it. 

Heavy, clayey loam is, in one way, excellent, in another, not so good. So long as we can keep it equably moist without making it muddy it isall right, but if we let it get a little too dry it cracks, and in thisway breaks the threads of the spawn and ruins the mushrooms that werefed through them. 

=Loam Containing Old Manure. =--Loam in which there is a good deal ofold, undecomposed manure, such as the rich soil of our vegetablegardens, is unqualifiedly condemned by some writers because of thequantity of spurious and noxious fungi it is supposed to produce whenused in mushroom beds. But I can not join in this denunciation becausemy experience does not justify it. This earth is the only kind used bymany market gardeners, as they have no other, and certainly withoutapparent injurious effect. When I was connected with the London marketgardens, some twenty years ago, Steele, Bagley, Broadbent, and the otherlarge mushroom growers in the Fulham Fields cased all of their beds withthe common garden soil--perhaps the most manure-filled soil on the faceof the earth--and spurious fungi never troubled them. Indeed, I can notunderstand why it should produce baneful crops of toadstools when usedin mushroom beds, and no toadstools when used for other horticulturalpurposes, as on our carnation benches in greenhouses, in our lettuce orcucumber beds, or in the case of potted plants. True, spurious fungi mayappear in the earth on our greenhouse benches or frame beds or mushroombeds at any time and in more or less quantity, but I am convinced thatthe rich earth of the vegetable garden has no more to do with producingtoadstools than has any other good soil, and old manure has far less todo with it than has fresh manure. 

All practical gardeners know how apt hotbeds, in spring when their heatis on the decline, are to produce a number of toadstools; and, also, that when the bed is "spent, " that is, when the heat is altogether gone, the tendency to bear toadstools has gone too. This peculiarity is moreapparent in spring than in fall. All mushroom growers know that spuriousfungi, when they appear at all, are most numerous three to two weeksbefore it is time for the mushrooms to come in sight. The same growthappears in the manure piles out in the yard; a few weeks after thestrong heat of the manure has gone lots of toadstools may be observed onand about the heaps, but on the piles of well-rotted cold manure weseldom find toadstools at all. 

The fresh, clean stable manure used in mushroom-growing is not apt to becharged with the spores of pernicious toadstools; their presence isalways most marked in the case of mixed manures. 

And there is a current idea that mushrooms will not thrive in beds inwhich old manure abounds, either in the loam or fermenting material;that it kills the mycelium. This, too, I must refute. I have seen heavycrops of spontaneous mushrooms come up in violet and carnation beds inwinter, and where the soil consisted of at least one-fourth of rottedmanure well mixed with the earth. In cucumber and lettuce beds the samething has taken place. And in similar beds that have been plantedartificially with spawn, good crops of mushrooms have also been raised, and the mycelium, instead of evading the lumps of old manure in the soiloften forms a white web right through them. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

EARTHING OVER THE BEDS. 

This is an important operation in mushroom-growing, and the one forwhich loam is indispensable. It consists in covering the manure beds, after they have been spawned, with a coating, or casing as it is morecommonly called, of loam. The spawn spreads in the manure and rises upinto the casing, where most of the young mushrooms develop, and all finda firm foothold. The loam also contributes to their sustenance. And itprotects the manure, hence the spawn, from sudden fluctuations oftemperature, and preserves it from undue wetting or drying. 

The best soil to use for this purpose is rich, fibrous, mellow loam, such as is described, page 100. 

If the manure is fresh and in good condition and the beds are in a snugcellar or closed mushroom house, I would not case them until the secondweek after spawning, say about the eighth or tenth day; but were thesesame beds in an open, airy shed or other building I would case them oversome days earlier, say the fourth or fifth day. A fear is oftenexpressed that when beds are cased within three or four days after beingspawned the close exclusion of the manure from the air is apt to raisethe heat of the manure in the bed, and thereby destroy the spawn; but Ihave never known of any truth in this theory, and with well-preparedmanure I am satisfied no brisk reheating takes place, at least thethermometer does not indicate it. The great danger of early casing is inkilling the spawn by burying it too deep in damp material and before ithas begun to run through the manure. 

I have conducted several experiments in order to satisfy myselfregarding when is the proper time to case the beds, and have found nodifference in results between beds that were cased over as soon as theywere spawned and others that were not cased over until the fourth, seventh, tenth, or fourteenth day after spawning. The good or badresults in the time of casing depend on the condition of the manure inthe beds, the depth at which the spawn has been inserted, the opennessor closeness of the place in which the beds are situated, and othercultural conditions. But to delay casing as late as the fifteenth orsixteenth day after spawning is injurious to the crop, because inapplying the covering of soil we are sure to break many of the myceliumthreads that have by this time so freely permeated the surface of themanure. After the fourth week little white knots may be observed hereand there on the spawn threads; these are forming mushrooms, and todelay casing the bed until this time would smother these littlepinheads, and greatly mar our prospects of a good crop. 

Peter Henderson, in his invaluable work, "Gardening for Profit, " hasgiven rise to a deep seated prejudice against molding over mushroombeds as soon as they are spawned by telling us that in his first attemptat mushroom-growing he had labored for two years without being able toproduce a single mushroom, and all because he molded over his beds witha two-inch casing of loam just as soon as he had spawned them. Then hechanged his tactics, and did not mold over the beds until the tenth ortwelfth day after spawning, and was rewarded with good crops ofmushrooms. Now, notwithstanding Mr. Henderson's experience, it is a factthat many excellent growers spawn and mold their beds the same day, andwith success. But Mr. H. Has done much good in displaying a rock againstwhich many might be wrecked, so much depends upon other culturalconditions. The old practice of inserting the spawn three or more inchesdeep into the manure bed and then molding it at once with two inchesdeep of loam was enough to destroy the most potent spawn; nowadays webarely cover the spawn with the manure, and this is how molding over atonce is so successful. 

All the preparation necessary is to have the loam in medium dry, mellowcondition, well broken up with the spade or digging fork, and freed fromsticks, stones, big roots, clods, chunks of old manure, and the like. 

Sifting the soil for casing the beds is labor lost. Sifted soil has noadvantage over unsifted earth, except when it is to be used fortopdressing the bearing beds or filling up the holes in their surface. 

The condition of the soil should be mellow but inclined to moist. If wetit can only be used clumsily and spread with difficulty; if dry it canbe spread easily but not made firm, and on ridge beds can not be put onevenly. But when moderately moist it can be spread easily and evenly onflat or rounded surfaces, and made firm and smooth. 

How deep the mold shall be put upon the bed is also an unsettledquestion. Some growers recommend three-fourths of an inch, others one, one and one-half, two, or two and one-half inches, and some of our bestgrowers of fifty or seventy-five years ago were emphatic in assertingthree inches as the proper depth, but among recent writers I do not findany who go beyond two and one-half inches. My own experience is in favorof a heavy covering, say one and one-half to two inches. In the case ofa thin covering the mushrooms come up all right but their texture is notas solid as it is in the case of a heavy covering, nor do the bedscontinue as long in bearing; besides, "fogging off" is much moreprevalent under thinly covered than under heavily covered beds; also, when the coating of loam is heavy a great many more of the "pinheads"develop into full sized mushrooms than in the case of thinly moldedbeds. 

Opinions differ as to firming the soil. I am in favor of packing thesoil quite firm, and have never seen good mushrooms that could not comethrough a well firmed casing of loam, and I never knew of an instancewhere firm casing stopped or checked the spreading of the mycelium orthe development of the mushrooms. In the case of flat beds, --forinstance, those made on shelves and floors, --a slightly compactedcoating (and this is all Mr. J. G. Gardner uses) may be all right, butin the case of alongside-of-walls, ridge, and other rounded beds I muchprefer and always use solidly compacted casings. 

Mr. Henshaw has for several years used green sods about two inchesthick, put all over the bed, grass side down, and beaten firmly. Theadvantage of using sods instead of soil, he thinks, is that the youngclusters of mushrooms never damp or "fogg off" as they are apt to dowhen soil is used. 

I have given this green sods method repeated and careful trials, and amsatisfied that it has no advantages, in any way, over common fibrousloam; indeed, it is not as good. No matter how firmly a sod, having itsgreen side down, may be beaten on to a bed of manure, there is barelyany union between the two; the sod merely rests upon the dung, but soclosely that the mycelium enters it freely. A slight movement ordisplacement of the sod after the spawn enters it will break the threadsof mycelium between the manure and the sod, and this will destroy theimmature mushrooms forming in the sod. This gave me a good deal oftrouble. Stepping on the sod would disturb it. A clump of strongmushrooms formed under it sometimes displaces it in forcing their way tothe surface. 

Sods are only fit for use on flat beds where they can lie solid; onrounded or ridge beds they are too liable to be disturbed. And thetrouble and expense of procuring sods are too great to warrant theiruse, even if they had any advantages. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

TOPDRESSING WITH LOAM. 

In beds that are in full bearing or a little past their best we oftenfind multitudes of very small or what we call "pinhead" mushrooms, thatseem to be sitting right on the top of the loam, or clumps that havebeen raised a little above the surface by growing in bunches, or what weterm "rocks"; now a topdressing of finely sifted fresh loam, aboutone-fourth to one-half inch thick, spread all over the bed, will helpthese mushrooms materially without doing any of them harm. But whilethis topdressing assists all mushrooms that are visible above ground, nomatter how small they may be when the dressing is applied, I am notconvinced that it induces greater fertility in the spawn, or, in otherwords, induces the spawn to spread further and produce more mushroomsthan it would were no topdressing applied. I know that this is contraryto the opinions and writings of many, at the same time it is accordingto my own observation. 

Go over the bed very carefully and pick out every soft or "fogged-off"mushroom, no matter how small it may be, and root out every bit of oldmushroom stem or tough spongy material formed by it, and in this way getthe bed thoroughly cleaned. Then fill up all the holes caused by pullingthe mushrooms or rooting out the old stumps, and when the whole surfaceis level apply the topdressing evenly all over the face of the bed, avoiding, as much as possible, burying the well advanced mushrooms. While it would be very well to pack the dressing smoothly over the bed, it is impracticable; we may press it gently with the back of the hand onthe bare spots between the mushrooms, but we should not even do thisover the mushrooms, no matter how tiny they may be, else many of the"pinheads" will be injured and cause "fogging off. "

But we can firm the dressing to the bed by watering it, which may bedone over the whole surface of the bed, and without sparing themushrooms, large or small. Use clear water and apply it gently through awater-pot rose. I always do this, and have never known it to injure theyoung mushrooms. 

In the case of mushroom beds in which black spot has appeared in thecrop, I have found that a topdressing of fine, fresh earth appliedevenly all over the bed acts, to a certain extent, as a preventive offurther attack, but of course has no effect upon any of the alreadyaffected mushrooms, large or small. 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE PROPER TEMPERATURE. 

The best temperature at which to keep the mushroom house or cellar is55° to 57°. But much depends upon the method of growing the esculent;the construction of the house or cellar, and other circumstances. Mushrooms can be successfully grown in buildings in which thetemperature may be as low as 20° or as high as 65°. By covering the bedswell with hay or other protecting material they can be kept warm, evenin sharp frosty weather, as the London market gardeners do with theiroutdoor beds in winter; but when the temperature in the structure inwhich the mushrooms are grown averages as high as 70° we can not hopefor success; indeed, 65° is too high. 

A high temperature in a close house or cellar is injurious; it hurriesin the crop and forces up the mushrooms weak and thin-fleshed and withungainly, long stems; it soon exhausts the bed. The time when its evileffects are least visible is early in the fall and late in spring whenthe outside temperature is high, and when the beds are in somewhat airyrather than close quarters. In the Dosoris cellars there is a steadydifference of about 5° in the temperature between the end next theboiler, which is kept at 60° precisely, and that of the farther end, which registers 55° steadily. There is very little difference in theweight of crop produced on the beds at either end of these cellars, butwhat little there is is in favor of the cooler end. At 60° the cropbegins to come in in six to seven weeks after spawning, lasts for threeto four weeks in heavy bearing and a week or more longer in lightbearing, and then it gradually dwindles. 

In a temperature of 55° it may be seven weeks after spawning before themushrooms appear. In a temperature of 50° they may take a few dayslonger in appearing, but, as a rule, they are firm, heavy, short-stemmed, and perhaps a little furry on top and clammy to thetouch, and the beds last in good bearing for two months; indeed, often awhole winter long. But I have failed to find that the whole crop from abed in a 45° to 50° temperature was any greater than that of a like bedin a 55° to 57° temperature; it is merely a case of getting in six weeksfrom the warmer house what it takes ten weeks to get from the coolerone. 

In a temperature of 50° it is not necessary to cover the beds toincrease their warmth, nor is it needful even in one of 45°, if there isa fair warmth in the body of the bed to keep the spawn working; but ifthe warmth of the interior of the bed falls under 57°, and theatmospheric temperature under 45°, the bed should be kept warm bycovering with hay, straw, matting, or other material, or better still byboxing it over and laying this covering on the outside of the boxing. When cold thicken the covering, when warm lessen it. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

WATERING MUSHROOM BEDS. 

If the beds get dry they should be watered, for mushrooms will not growwell in dry beds or in a dry atmosphere. Watering is an operationrequiring much care. In properly-made beds the manure should remainmoist enough from first to last, and whatever dryness is evident shouldbe in the loam casing of the beds and the atmosphere. In allartificially heated mushroom houses the beds and atmosphere are apt toget too dry at one time or another; in underground houses or cellarsthis is less apparent than in above-ground structures; in shadednorth-facing houses dryness is less troublesome than in houses moreopenly placed. 

Endeavor by all fair means to lessen the necessity for watering thebeds, but when water is needed never hesitate to give it freely. Mulching the beds and maintaining a moist atmosphere are the bestpreventives. After the beds are spawned and molded it is a good plan tocover them with a light coating of strawy litter or hay to preventdrying, but this mulching should be removed when it is near time for theyoung mushrooms to appear. A light sprinkling of water over thismulching every few days, but never enough to reach the soil, assists inpreserving enough moisture in the bed under the mulch and also in theatmosphere of the house. 

Clean, soft water at a temperature of 80° or 90°; a little warmer or alittle colder will not hurt, but do not use water higher than 110°, asit might injure the little pinheads, nor lower than the averagetemperature of the house, as it would chill the bed, and this shouldalways be avoided. 

Use a small or medium-sized watering pot with a long spout and a finerose sprinkler. Apply the water in a gentle shower over the bed, mushrooms and all, but never use enough to allow it to settle in poolsor run off in little streams. Clean water sprinkled over the mushroomsdoes not appear to hurt them, but they should never be touched withmanure water, as it stains them. Just as soon as the surface of the bedshows signs of dryness give it water, the quantity depending upon thecondition of the bed. Never let a bed get very dry before watering it. To thoroughly moisten a very dry bed requires a heavy watering; so much, indeed, that the sudden change might injuriously affect the youngmushrooms and spawn. Give enough water at a time to moderately moistenthe soil, not to soak it, but never sufficient to pass through the soilinto the manure. Clean water only should be used until the beds comeinto bearing, but after that time manure water may be employed withadvantage; however, this is not at all imperative; indeed, excellentcrops can be and are continually being produced without the aid ofmanure water at all. 

In the case of beds in full bearing, manure water is beneficial to thecrop. Apply it from a small watering pot with a long narrow spout but norose, and pour the liquid on gently over the surface of the bed, runningit freely between the clumps but never touching any of the mushrooms. For this reason a rose should not be used. 

I have always used manure water for mushrooms more or less, but duringthe past two seasons--'87-'88 and '88-'89--I have experimented with itcontinuously and very carefully, using it in some form or other on partof every bed, and am satisfied that manure water made from fresh horsedroppings is the best, and the dark colored liquid, the drainings frommanure piles, is the poorest; in fact, this latter is not as good asplain water, for it seems to have a deadening rather than quickeningeffect upon the beds. Cow manure and sheep manure make a good liquidmanure, but still I prefer the horse manure, and although having givenhen and pigeon manure and guano fair tests I am not satisfied that theyhave benefited the crop, and there is always a risk in their use. Liquidmanure made from the contents of the barnyard tank has not done muchgood, but fresh urine from the horse and cow stables diluted twelve tofifteen times its bulk has given favorable results. 

Mushrooms not only bear with impunity but appear to enjoy a strongerliquid manure more than do any other cultivated plants, and I amsatisfied that the weak liquids usually recommended for pot and gardenplants would be barely more efficacious than plain water for mushrooms. 

The manure water that has given me most satisfaction is prepared asfollows: Dump two bushels of fresh horse droppings into a forty-fivegallon barrel and fill up with water; stir it up well and let it settleover night. Drain off the liquid the next day and add a pound ofsaltpeter to it. For use, to a pailful of this liquid add a pailful ofwarm water. Water of about 80° to 90° is best for mushroom beds. Saltpeter is an excellent fertilizer for mushrooms. I use it in twoways, namely: First, powdered and mixed in the soil for casing the beds, at the rate of two ounces of saltpeter to the bushel of earth. Second, dissolved in water at the rate of two ounces of saltpeter to eightgallons of water, and sprinkled over the beds. 

Common salt I use as an insecticide and also as a fertilizer, and amsatisfied that it proves beneficial in both ways. Sometimes I sprinkleit broadcast on the surface of the beds, always on the bare places, never touching the mushrooms, and leave it there for a day or two, thenwith a fine, gentle sprinkling of water wash it into the soil. This isto help destroy the anguillulæ. As a fertilizer only dissolve fourounces of salt in ten gallons of water, and with this sprinkle the beds. 

A too dry atmosphere can be remedied by sprinkling the floors, walls, orlitter coverings on the beds with water, not heavily or copiously, butgently and only enough to wet the surfaces; better moisten in this wayfrequently than drench the place at any one time. But I very muchdislike sprinkling the beds in order to moisten the atmosphere. Anexperienced man can tell in a moment whether or not the atmosphere ofthe mushroom house is too dry. The air in the mushroom house shouldalways feel moist, at the same time not raw or chilly, and the floor andwall surfaces should present a slow tendency to dry up, and the earth onthe beds should retain its dark, moist appearance. The least tendency todryness should at once be relieved by damping the wall and floorsurfaces. 

In houses heated by smoke flues, or still more by ordinary stoves andsheet iron pipes, it may be necessary to dampen the floors and wallsonce or several times a day to maintain a sufficiently moist atmosphere, but where hot water pipes are used and the houses are tight enough torequire but little artificial heat, such frequent sprinkling will not benecessary. In the case of beds in unheated structures the ordinaryatmosphere is generally moist enough. 

=Manure Steam for Moistening the Atmosphere. =--The late James Barnes, ofEngland, a grand old gardener, writing in the London _Garden_, Vol. III, page 486, describes his method of growing mushrooms sixty years ago, andsays: "In winter a nice moist heat was maintained by placing hot stablemanure inside, and often turning it over. " Mr. John G. Gardner, ofJobstown, N. J. , is one of Mr. Barnes's old pupils and a most successfulmushroom grower, and he now practices this same method of moistening theatmosphere by hot manure steam. See page 21. 

In damping the floors of the mushroom house, as well as the beds, I usea medium-sized watering pot and fine rose; but in sprinkling the wallsand other parts not readily accessible by the watering pot I use acommon garden syringe. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

GATHERING AND MARKETING MUSHROOMS. 

This is an important point in the cultivation of this esculent, andshould be attended to with painstaking discretion. 

When mushrooms are fit to pick depends upon several conditions; forinstance, whether for market or for home use, and if for the latter, whether they are wanted for soups or stews. For fresh and attractiveappearance and best appreciation in the market, pick them when they areplump and fresh and just before the frill connecting the cap with thestem breaks apart. The French mushrooms should always be gathered beforethe frill bursts; the English mushrooms also look best when gathered atthis time, but they are admissible if gathered when the frill begins toburst and before the cap has opened out flat. If the mushrooms display atendency to produce long stems pick them somewhat earlier, soon enoughto get them with short shanks, for long stems are disliked in market;so, too, are dark or discolored or old mushrooms of any sort. Sometimeswe may not have enough mushrooms ready at one gathering to make itworth while sending them to market, and are tempted to let them stayungathered until to-morrow, when they have grown larger and many moreshall have grown big enough to gather. This should never be done. Itwill give an unfavored, unequal lot, some big, some little, some old, some young. Far better pick every one the moment it is ready to gather, and keep all safe in a cool place and covered until some more are readyfor use, and in this way have a uniform appearing lot of young produce. 

Mushrooms for soups should always be gathered before they burst theirgills; indeed, they are mostly gathered when in a button state; that is, when they are about the size of marbles. In this condition, when cooked, they retain their white appearance and do not discolor the soup. Immature mushrooms are deficient in flavor. 

For home use, for baking, stewing, broiling, or for cooking in any wayin which the tenderness of the flesh and the delicious aroma of themushrooms are desirable in their finest condition, let the mushroomsattain their full size and burst their frills, as seen in Fig. 24, andgather them before the caps open out flat, or the gills lose any oftheir bright pink color. If you let them get old enough for the gills toturn brown before gathering, the mushrooms will become leathery intexture, and lose in flavor and darken sadly in cooking. 

[Illustration: FIG. 24. A PERFECT MUSHROOM. ]

In picking, always pull the mushrooms out by the root, and never, ifpracticable to avoid it, cut them over with a knife. In gathering, takehold of the mushrooms and give them a sharp but gentle twist, pressingthem down at the same time, and they generally part from the bed withoutany trouble; then place them in the baskets, root-end down, so as tokeep them perfectly clean and free from grit. Sometimes when severalmushrooms are joined together in one root-stock and it is impossible toremove one without disturbing the whole, cut it over rather than pull itout. In the case of clumps of young mushrooms, where one can not bepulled out without displacing some of the others also, cut it out ratherthan pull it. There is a knack in pulling mushrooms, easily attained bypractice. And even when they come up in thick bunches and it wouldappear impossible to pull out the full-grown ones without disturbing theothers, a practiced hand will give them a twitch and a pull--they oftenpart from the bed by the gentlest touch--and get them out withoutunfastening any of the multitude of small buttons that may be growingaround them. 

The advantages of pulling over cutting are several: It benefits the bed. If we cut over a mushroom and leave its stump in the ground, in a fewdays decay sets in and a fluffy or spongy substance grows around the oldbutt, which destroys many of the little mushrooms around it, as well asevery thread of mycelium that comes in contact with it. One should beparticular to scoop out these stumps with a knife before this conditiontakes place, and go over the beds every few days to fill up the holes, made in scooping out the old stumps, with fresh loam. 

Pulled mushrooms always keep fresh longer than do those that have beencut. In the interest of the market grower they have another advantage. Mushrooms are bought and sold by weight, and as the stems are alwaysretained to the caps all are weighed together; if part of the stems hadbeen cut off the weight would have been reduced, and, in likeproportion, the price; but if the stems are retained entire not only arethe mushrooms benefited, but the weight, and with it the price, is alsoincreased. 

=Gathering Field or Wild Mushrooms. =--Go in search of them in themorning before the sunshine gets warm and they become too open or old. If you wish to gather and preserve them in their most perfect conditionpull them up by the "roots, " carefully remove any soil from them, andthen lay them orderly in the basket, the root end down; and by spreadinga stout sheet of paper over the layer, another may be arranged above itin the same way, and so on until the basket is full. But if you are notso particular and wish them for immediate use, or for ketchup or drying, the common way of cutting them off and carrying them home in bulk willanswer well enough. 

=Marketing Mushrooms. =--Most market growers who live immediately aroundNew York City sell direct, and deliver their mushrooms to hotels, restaurants, and fancy fruiterers. But some of them, also most of thosewho live at a considerable distance from the city, sell their mushroomsthrough commission merchants in New York; they, in turn, sell inquantities to suit customers. 

Mushrooms are sold by the pound, and come into market in boxes made ofstrong undressed paper. Some growers have light wooden boxes made thathold from one to four pounds of mushrooms each, and these makeconvenient and strong packages for shipping by express. They may be sentsingly, or, as is the case with the paper boxes, several packed togetherin crates or boxes. In sending directly to hotels, cheap baskets, holding one or several pounds--Mr. Gardner's baskets hold twelvepounds--are often used, but in sending to commission merchants, whohave to deal them out in quantities to suit customers, mushrooms shouldalways be packed in one, two, three or four pound boxes or baskets, preferably one pound. Mushrooms are not like potatoes or apples, thatcan be handled, remeasured, and repacked without damaging them. Eachrehandling will certainly discolor and perhaps break a good many ofthem, rendering them unsalable, if not worthless. 

The utmost care in gathering and packing of mushrooms for shipping is ofprimary importance. Gather them the moment they are in best condition, no matter whether or not they are to be packed and shipped the same day;never let them blow open before gathering them; and never cut off shortstems. Long stems have to be shortened, but not until everything isready to pack them. With a very soft hair brush dust off any earth thatmay stick to the cap of the mushroom, and with a harder brush or theback of a knife rub the earth off of the root end of the stem. Then sortthe mushrooms, --the big ones by themselves, the middle-sized bythemselves, the small or button-sized ones by themselves, and pack eachkind by itself. Pack very firmly without bruising, and so as to show thepretty caps to the best advantage. Never pack mushrooms more than twodeep without using plenty of soft paper between the layers, and neverput a heavy bulk of them into one box or basket. They discolor so easilythat, all things considered, about a pound is enough in a box, if wewish them to carry safely and retain their bright, fresh skin withouttarnishing. 

Mr. Barter, of London, writes me: "The punnets we use for marketing ourmushrooms in are the same that are used for strawberries or peaches. These hold just one pound, but it is becoming more customary now to havelittle boxes made holding from three to five pounds, as these are betterfor packing in larger cases for long journeys. "

CHAPTER XVIII. 

RE-INVIGORATING OLD BEDS. 

There is a wide-spread impression among horticulturists that worn outbeds which have ceased to bear may, by means of watering and certainstimulants and warming up again, be so re-invigorated as to start intofull bearing, and yield a second and a good crop. I have given thisquestion much painstaking and practical consideration, and haveabsolutely failed to revive a "dead" bed. I have not been able to do itmyself, and any instance of its having been done has never come under myobservation. This may appear heresy anent the multitudinous writings tothe contrary. 

A mushroom bed may keep on bearing in a desultory way for many months, and now and again show spurts of increased fertility; but this is nosecond crop; it is merely a prolonged dribbling of the first crop. Abed, by reason of cold or dryness, may, as it were, stand still orpartially stop bearing, and soon after it is remoistened, warmed, andotherwise submitted to congenial conditions, will display renewedenergy; but this is no second crop; it is merely a spurt of the firstcrop caused by extra favorable cultural conditions. But to show howvaguely this question which is so much written about is regarded, let mequote from a letter to me by Mr. J. Barter, who grows 21, 000 lbs ofmushrooms a year for the London market: "You ask me, 'Do you ever get asecond crop?' My beds last in bearing, on an average, each three months, and that I reckon to be three crops. But whether it be three or sixmonths, the weight of mushrooms is about the same. As there is in, saya ton of manure, only so much mushroom-producing power, if you force itto produce that weight in two months you are a gainer, as you therebysave in labor; but when that producing-power is exhausted it willproduce no more mushrooms. "

A spent mushroom bed is one that has been kept in bearing conditionunder the most favorable circumstances at our command, and it has bornea good crop, lasted some two months in bearing, and now it has stoppedbearing (except in a meagerly, desultory way) because the spawn ormycelium has exhausted itself and is dead. Then, without living spawn inthe bed how are we to get mushrooms? Some bits of mycelium are stillalive and yield the desultory few, but every mushroom that they yield ispreying on their vitality, and after a time they too shall die and thebed be completely barren, for the mycelium is altogether dead, andwithout mycelium mushrooms are an impossibility. We can keep mushroommycelium in active growth the year round, and year after year, providingwe never let it bear mushrooms. This is done by taking the mycelium, just before it begins bearing, from one manure bed and plant it inanother, and so on from bed to bed. At every fresh transplanting themycelium exerts itself into renewed growth, for it must become a strongplant before it has strength enough to produce and support a mushroom. Our utmost efforts have never rendered mycelium in a mushroom-bearingcondition perennial. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

INSECT AND OTHER ENEMIES. 

The mushroom grower has his full share of insects to contend with, andin order to overcome them one should acquaint himself with them, andknow what they are, what they do, whence they came, and how to destroythem. One should study the diseases and mishaps of his crop and endeavorto know their cause. If we know the cause of failing health in plants, even in mushrooms, we can probably stop or devise a remedy for thedisease or means to prevent its recurrence, and if we can not benefitthe present subject we are forewarned against future attacks. But thereis a deal of mysterious trouble in this direction in mushroom-growing. We are likely to know something about the depredations committed byinsects or parasitic molds above ground, but I am sure there is a gooddeal of mischief going on under ground of which we know very little, ifanything. The ills to which the mycelium is subject are not at all fullyunderstood. 

="Maggots. "=--This is the common name among practical mushroom growersfor the larvæ of a species of fly (Diptera) which from April on throughthe warm summer months renders mushroom-growing unprofitable. It isunavoidable, and so far has proved invincible. It attacks the mushroomsin deep cellars, above-ground houses, greenhouses, or frames, and isoften quite common in early appearing crops in the open fields. Wesometimes read that it does not occur in unheated cellars, but this is amistake, for in our unheated tunnel cellars, where the temperature inApril does not exceed 55°, maggots always appear about the end of thismonth. But it is true that in the case of cool houses and where the bedsare covered over with hay or straw maggots do not appear as early in theseason as they do in warm houses and open beds. While rigid cleanliness, and care in keeping the house or cellar closed, no doubt have much to doin lessening the trouble, I have never been able to overcome it, andknow of no one who has. We simply stop growing mushrooms in summer. 

The maggots or larvæ are about three-sixteenths to four-sixteenths of aninch long, white with black head, and appear in all parts of themushroom, but mostly in the cap and at the base of the stem, andperforate hither and thither leaving behind them a disgusting network ofburrows. The tiny buttons, about as soon as they appear at the surfaceof the ground, are infested, but this does not check their growth, andwhen they become mushrooms large enough for gathering, unless it be fora dark looking puncture or tracing now and then visible on the outsideof the caps and stems, there are but few signs to indicate to theinexperienced eye the presence of maggots. And this is why maggotymushrooms are so often found exposed for sale in summer. But in large orfull-grown mushrooms, and especially the white-skinned varieties, theirpresence is visible enough. Although very repugnant, however, andutterly unfit for food, maggoty mushrooms are not poisonous. 

But all the mushrooms of summer crops are not maggoty, only a largeproportion of them; the evil begins in April, and increases as thesummer advances, until August, when it decreases, and in Octobercompletely stops--at least this is my experience. 

A solution of salt, saltpeter, or ammonia sprinkled over the surface ofthe beds does not, in this case, do any good as an insecticide, pyrethrum powder diffused through the atmosphere, and tobacco smoke, have been ineffectual. Burning a lamp set in a basin of water with alittle kerosene floating on the surface is a most doubtful operation. Multitudes of flies are destroyed by this lamp trap, but they are thepoor little innocent "manure flies, " and the atmosphere of the house isvitiated and rendered unhealthy for the crop. I have tried these lamptraps season after season, and never knew of their doing any good; thatis, the maggots seemed just as numerous in the lamp-trapped cellar as inthe other cellar in which no lamp trap had been used. 

Regarding this "maggots" question, Mr. J. F. Barter, of London, writesme: "During the summer months the outdoor mushrooms get maggoty beforethey are big enough to gather, but of course they can be grown in coolcellars all the year round. . . . I know of no sure cure for them (themaggots); of course a slight sprinkling of salt with manure or mold doesprevent, to a certain extent, but it must be used very carefully. " Nowmy experience is, as I have already said, that it is impossible to growmushrooms here in summer, even in cool cellars, without having them moreor less maggoty. As regards the salt and loam preventive, I have triedit lightly and heavily, but without any apparent good effect. 

=Black Spot. =--All mushroom growers are familiar with this disease, butunless it appears in pronounced form very little notice is taken of it, even by market men, for we see spotted mushrooms continually exposed forsale. It appears as dark brown spots, streaks, or freckles, on the topof the mushroom caps, and increases in distinctness and breadth withage. Fig. 25. It is caused by eel worms (_Anguillulæ_). These minutecreatures enter the mushrooms when the latter are in their tiniest pinform and before they emerge from the ground. If a button arises clean itremains clean, if diseased it continues to be diseased, and it is afact that if one mushroom in a clump has black spot we usually find thatevery mushroom in the clump has it. But mushrooms growing from the samebit of spawn and that come up an inch or two away from the spotted onesmay be perfectly clean. Black spot has never occurred with me in newbeds, and seldom in those in vigorous bearing, but it generally appearsin beds that have been in bearing condition for some weeks or aredeclining. It does not confine itself to any particular spot or part ofthe bed, and sometimes it is much more plentiful than at others. BetweenOctober and March we have very little black spot, but as the springopens this disease increases. During the winter season, with carefulattention, perhaps not so much as one per cent will show black spot, butas the warm weather sets in the per centage increases until in May, whenas many as twenty per cent may be affected by it. 

[Illustration: FIG. 25. MUSHROOM AFFECTED WITH BLACK SPOT. ]

Black spot is a disease, however, that can be controlled. Keepeverything in and about the mushroom houses rigidly clean, and as soonas a bed has ceased to bear a crop worth picking clear it out, lime-washthe place it occupied, and make up another bed. Carefully observe thatno old loam or manure is allowed to accumulate anywhere, or green scumforms upon the boards, paths, or walls; boiling water impregnated withalum poured over the boards, walls, and other scum-covered surfaces, will kill the eel worms, but it should not be allowed to touch themushroom beds that are in bearing or coming into bearing. Much can bedone to protect the bearing beds from the ravages of this pest: Ingathering the mushrooms remove every vestige of old stump and fogged-offmushrooms, keep the holes filled up with fresh loam, and when the bedhas been in bearing condition for a fortnight sprinkle it over with asolution of salt, and next day topdress with a half-inch coating offinely sifted fresh loam; firm it to the bed with the back of the hand, for it can not be pressed on with a spade on account of the growingmushrooms. 

Is black spot unwholesome? I do not think so. I have never known any illeffects from eating it. The spotted parts are merely flavorless andtasteless. But it is a very disgusting disease, and no one, I am sure, would care to eat eel worms with their mushrooms. Until quite recently Iused to regard the black spot as the mark of some parasitic fungus, and, acting under this impression, sent affected mushrooms to Dr. W. G. Farlow, Prof. Of Cryptogamic Botany at Harvard University, for hisopinion. He wrote me: "I find that the trouble is due to _Anguillulæ_, and I find an abundance of these animals in the brown spots. " He advisedme to submit them to an expert in "worms. " I then sent samples to mykind friend, Mr. William Saunders, of Washington, D. C. , who submittedthem, for me, to Dr. Thomas Taylor, the microscopist to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and who replied: "I recommend that you use asprinkling of scalding water thoroughly over the entire surface of thebed, especially the portion next to the boxing. The scalding watershould be applied before the buttons appear, but not penetrate more thanone-eighth of an inch below the surface. Anguillulæ abound whereverdecaying vegetable matter exists. . . . The green algæ on the outside offlower pots abounds in the anguillulæ. "

=Manure Flies. =--This is the name we give to the little flies (a speciesof _Sciara_) that appear in large numbers in spring and summer in ourmushroom houses, or, indeed, in hotbeds or structures of any sort wheremanure is used, as well as about the manure heaps in the yard. Onaccount of their habits they are regarded with much ill-favor. They hopabout the house and are continually running over the mushrooms, beds, and walls, in the most suspicious manner. But, notwithstanding this, Iam inclined to regard them as perfectly harmless so far as injuring themushroom crop is concerned, except the fact that they soil the mushroomssomewhat by their traveling over them with their muddy feet. 

In attempting to get rid of the maggot fly I have destroyed largenumbers of these little innocents, but without any apparent diminutionin their numbers. Lachaume recommends: "These flies may be destroyed byplacing about a number of pans filled with water to which a few drops ofoil of turpentine have been added. The flies are attracted by the odorand drown themselves. They may also be caught with a floating light, inwhich they will burn their wings and fall into the water. " I have foundthat pure buhach powder dusted into the air or burned on a hot shovel inthe mushroom house has been more effective in destroying these fliesthan either the lamp or drowning process. 

=Slugs. =--These are serious pests in the mushroom house, especially inabove-ground structures, and they also occur in annoying numbers incellars. Wherever hay or straw is used in covering the beds, or there ismuch woodwork about the house, slugs appear to be most numerous. Theyare very fond of mushrooms and attack them in all stages, from the tinybutton just emerging from the ground to the fully developed plant. Inthe case of the buttons or small mushrooms they usually eat out a pieceon the top or side of the cap, and as the mushroom advances in growththese wounds spread open and display an ugly scar or disfigurement. Theyalso bite into the stems. But in the case of fresh, full grown mushroomsthey seem to have a particular liking for the gills, and eat patchesout of them here and there. 

="Bullet" or "Shot" Holes. =--My attention was first called to these byMr. A. H. Withington, of New Jersey. They are little holes cut clearthrough the mushroom caps, as if perforated by a buckshot, and areevidently the work of some insect. He had, before then, submitted someof these perforated mushrooms to Prof. S. Lockwood, who sent them toProf. C. V. Riley for his opinion. Prof. Riley replied that: "It isquite likely that the damage was done by some myriapod, possibly aJulus, or some of its allies. Only observation on the spot willdetermine this point. " As I never had any trouble with myriapodsattacking mushrooms and had seen nothing of this "bullet hole" work inour own beds I was much interested in the question and determined tolook out for it, so I marked off a part of a bed and left that uncaredfor. I soon found out the trouble. These holes are the work of slugswhich I have found and watched in the act of eating out the holes. Tofind the slugs at work, one has to take his lantern and go out and lookfor them at night. And to find out about plant parasites--be theyfungus, or insect--one has to let them alone and watch them. Had we keptup our unsparing hunt for slugs, probably we should not yet have knownwhat caused these "bullet holes, " for no slug would have been left alivelong enough to eat a hole through a mushroom cap. 

Slugs must be caught and killed. We can find them at night by huntingfor them by lamp-light; their slimy track glistens and reveals theirpresence. A few small bits of slate or half rotten boards with a pinchof bran on them laid here and there about the beds are handy traps; theslugs gather to eat the bran, hide beneath the rotten wood, and can thenbe caught and killed. Fresh lettuce leaves make a capital trap, butlettuces in January or February are about as scarce as mushroomsthemselves. A dressing of salt is distasteful to slugs, and notinjurious to mushrooms. Strong, fresh lime water may be freely sprinkledover woodwork, pathways, walls, or elsewhere where slugs might gatherand hide themselves; but this solution should not be used upon themushroom beds. Rigid cleanliness, however, about the mushroom house, andan ever-alert eye for slugs, should keep them under. 

=Wood Lice. =--These are sure to be more or less abundant in everymushroom house, even in the cellars. They crawl in through doors, ventilators, or other interstices, and are brought in with the manure, and find shelter about the woodwork, manure, or any bits of dry litterthat may be around. They attack the pinhead and small button mushroomsby biting out little patches in their tops and sides; and although thesepatches are small to begin with, the blemish spreads as the mushroomgrows, and is an objectionable feature. Trapping and killing the insectsis the chief remedy. Put part of a half boiled potato (for which no salthad been used) into a little pasteboard box, and cover the potato withsome very dry swamp moss, lay the box on its side, and open at the endon the bed. The wood lice will gather to eat the potato, and remainafter feasting because the dry moss affords them a cozy hiding place. Several of these little boxes can be used. Go through the house in themorning, lift the little traps quickly, and shake out any wood lice thatmay be in them into a tin pail (an old lard pail will do), which shouldcontain a little water and kerosene. These traps may be used for anylength of time, merely observing to change the potato now and again tohave it in appetizing condition. Hot water or strong kerosene emulsionmay be poured about the woodwork, walls, and pathways, to destroy thewood lice, but should not be allowed to touch the beds. Poisoned sweetapples, potatoes, and parsnips have been recommended as baits for thesepests, but I must discourage using poisons of any sort in the mushroomhouse. Six or eight inch square pieces of half rotten very dry boardslaid in pairs, one above the other, also make capital traps; the woodlice gather there to hide themselves; these traps should be examinedfrequently and the insects shaken into the pail containing water andkerosene. 

=Mites. =--Two kinds of mites are very common about mushrooms in springand summer; one is whitish and smaller than a "red spider" (one of thecommonest insect pests among garden plants), and the other is yellowishand as large as or larger than a "red spider. " But I do not think thateither of these mites is worth considering as a mushroom pest. Theyellow mite (probably _Lyroglyphus infestans_) is extremely common instrawy litter on the surface of hotbeds, and I have no doubt finds itsway into the mushroom house as manure vermin rather than a mushroomparasite. They are the effect and not the cause of injury to the crop. When mushrooms are wounded or cracked, particularly about the stem, thecrevices often become abundantly inhabited with these mites, but they dono material damage. 

=Mice and Rats. =--These rodents are very fond of mushrooms, and wherethey have access to the beds are troublesome and destructive. Both thecommon house mouse and the white-bellied fence mouse are mushroomdestroyers, but, so far, the nimble but timid field mouse (among garden, open air, and frame crops generally) has never yet troubled ourmushrooms, but I can not believe that this immunity is voluntary on itspart. The mice bite a little piece here and there out of the caps of theyoung mushrooms, and these bite-marks, as the mushrooms advance ingrowth, spread open and become unsightly disfigurements. In the case ofopen mushrooms, however, the mice, like slugs, prefer the gills to thefleshy caps. Rats are far more destructive than mice. Trapping is theonly remedy I use, and would not use poison in the mushroom houses forthese creatures for obvious reasons. But we should make our housessecure against their inroads. 

=Toads. =--These are recommended as good insect traps to be used inmushroom houses, but I do not want them there; the cure is as bad as thedisease. The mushroom bed is a little paradise for the toad. He getsupon it and burrows or elbows out a snug little hole for himselfwherever he wishes, and many of them, too, and cares nothing aboutwhether, in his efforts to make himself comfortable, he has heaved outthe finest clumps of young mushrooms in the beds. 

=Fogging Off. =--This is one of the commonest ailments peculiar tocultivated mushrooms. It consists in the softening, shriveling, andperishing of part of the young mushrooms, which also usually assume abrownish color. These withered mushrooms do not occur singly here andthere over the face of the bed, but in patches; generally all or nearlyall of the very small mushrooms in a clump will turn brown and soft, andthere is no help for them; they never will recover their plumpness. Somewriters attribute fogging off to unfavorable atmosphericconditions, --the temperature may be too cold, or too hot, or theatmosphere too moist, or too dry. I am convinced that fogging off is dueto the destruction of the mycelium threads that supported thesemushrooms; it is a disease of the "root, " to use this expression; the"roots" having been killed, the tops must necessarily perish. If it werecaused by unfavorable conditions above ground we should expect all ofthe crop to be more or less injuriously affected; but this does notoccur; the mushrooms in one clump may be withered, and contiguous clumpsperfectly healthy. 

Anything that will kill the spawn or mycelium threads will causefogging off to overtake every little mushroom that had been attached tothese mycelium threads. Keeping the bed or part of it continuously wetor dry will cause fogging off, so will drip; watering with very coldwater is also said to cause it, but this I have not found to be thecase. Unfastening the ground by abruptly pulling up the large mushroomswill destroy many of the small mushrooms and pinheads attached to thesame clump; and when large mushrooms push up through the soil anddisplace some of the earth, all the small mushrooms so displaced willprobably waste away, as the threads of mycelium to which they wereattached for support have been severed. A common reason of fogging offis caused by cutting off the mushrooms in gathering them and leaving thestumps in the ground; in a few days' time these stumps develop a whitefluff or flecky substance, which seems to poison every thread ofmycelium leading to it, and all the mushrooms, present and to come, thatare attached to this arrested web of mycelium are affected by the poisonof the decaying old mushroom stump, and fogg off. Any impure matter inthe bed with which the mycelium comes in contact will destroy the spawnand fogg off the young mushrooms. Lachaume complains about the larvæ oftwo beetles, namely _Aphodius fimetarius_ and _Dermestes tessellatus_, which "cause great damage by eating the spawn, thereby breaking up thereproductive filaments. " Damage of this sort by these or any otherinsect vermin will cause fogging off. But I have not noticed either ofthe above beetles or their larvæ about our beds. 

=Flock. =--This is the worst of all mushroom diseases and common wherevermushrooms are grown artificially. It is not a new disease; I have knownit for twenty-five years, and it was as common then as it is now, andpractical gardeners have always called it _Flock_. I say "worst of alldiseases" because _I know_ that mushrooms affected by it are bothunwholesome and indigestible, and I can readily believe that inaggravated cases they are poisonous. It is caused by other fungi whichinfest the gills and frills of the mushrooms, and render them a hard, flocky mass; sometimes the affected mushrooms preserve their white skin, color, and normal form, at other times the cap becomes more or lessdistorted. The illustration, Fig. 26, is from life, and a good averageof a flock-infested mushroom. In gathering mushrooms the growers shouldinsist that every flock-infested mushroom be discarded, and consumers ofmushrooms should familiarize themselves with this disease so as to knowand reject every mushroom showing a trace of it. 

[Illustration: FIG. 26. A FLOCK-DISEASED MUSHROOM. ]

Flock does not affect all the mushrooms in a bed at any time, and I donot believe it spreads in the bed, or, to use the expression, becomescontagious. If one spot of mildew appears upon a cucumber, rose, orgrape vine indoors, and is not checked, it soon becomes general all overthe plant or plants, and if one spot of mold occurs in a propagating bedand is not checked at once it soon spreads over a large space anddestroys every cutting or seedling within its reach, but this is not thecase with flock in a mushroom bed. If one mushroom is affected withflock every mushroom produced from that piece of spawn is affected, butnot one mushroom produced from the pieces of spawn inserted next to thisone is affected by it; not even if the mycelium from the several lumpsof spawn forms an interlacing web. If the flock is confined to themushrooms produced from a certain bit of spawn some may ask, will theother pieces of spawn broken from the same brick produce flock-infestedmushrooms? No. I have given this point particular attention, have keptthe pieces of each brick close together, and where flock has appeared Ihave failed to find that the other pieces of spawn from that brick aremore liable to produce flock-infested mushrooms than are the pieces ofthe bricks that, as yet, have not shown any sign of diseased produce. 

How general is this disease? In a bed say three feet wide by thirty feetlong and of two months' bearing one may get as few as five or as many asfifty flocky mushrooms; one or two may occur to-day, and we may not findanother for a week or two, when we may get a whole clump of them, and soon. It is not the large number of them that makes them dangerous, forthey never appear in quantity. They sometimes appear among the earliestmushrooms in the bed, but generally not until after the bed has been inbearing condition for a week or two. 

What conditions are most favorable or unfavorable to the growth of thisdisease I do not know; but it is certainly not caused by debility in themushroom itself, as the parasite attacks healthy, robust mushrooms anddebilitated ones indiscriminately. This flocky condition is caused byone or more saprophytic and parasitic fungi of lowly origin, whosevarious parts are reduced to mere threads, simple or branched, anddivided into tubular cells at intervals, or else they are long, continuous microscopic tubes without any partitions, except at thoseoccasional points where a branch, destined to produce spores, is givenoff. Generally two or more species of these thread-fungi are present atthe same time on the mushroom host, and by the multiplied crossing andinterweaving of their threads and branches produce, through their greatnumbers, the whitish, felted mass of "flock"; while as individuals thethreads are so minute as to be scarcely or not at all visible to thenaked eye. Similar thread-fungi may often be found in the woods amongdamp leaves, under rotten logs, and on those porous fungi whichproject, shelf-like, from the trunks of trees. At present there is noway known for destroying the "flock, " except to take up and destroyevery clump of mushrooms attacked by it. Fortunately the disease is notvery serious if proper precautions are observed; for, in our owncellars, where mushrooms have been grown year after year for the pasteleven years, we get but few flocky mushrooms in any bed's bearing. Thedisease is not more common to-day than it was in any former year. But wegive our cellars a thorough cleaning every summer. 

=Cleaning the Mushroom Houses. =--After the season's cropping is finishedthe mushroom houses and cellars should be thoroughly cleaned. Clear outthe old beds, and bring outside all the movable floor and shelf boards, scrape up every bit of loose litter or dirt in the place and throw itout, broom down the walls and whatever boarding is left. Whitewash thewalls with hot lime wash, and paint every bit of woodwork liberally withcrude oil or kerosene. This is to destroy anguillulæ and other insectand fungus parasites. If you wish to use again the boards broughtoutside, broom them over and paint them copiously with kerosene. And ifyour cellar or house has a dirt floor, a heavy sprinkling of verycaustic lime water all over it will do good in ridding it of vermin. 

CHAPTER XX. 

GROWING MUSHROOMS IN RIDGES OUT OF DOORS AROUND LONDON. 

In the preface to _Kitchen and Market Gardening_ (London) is thefollowing:

"Mr. W. Falconer and Mr. C. W. Shaw made, in connection with the London_Garden_, what we believe to be the first attempt at long and systematicobservation of the best culture as it is in London market gardens. " Thisis mentioned to indicate that the writer speaks on this subject fromexperience. And although it is now seventeen years since I becamedisconnected with the London market gardens, by revisiting them a fewyears ago, and by correspondence and the horticultural press, I haveendeavored to keep informed of all changes of methods and improvementsin culture as practiced there. At that time Steele, Bagley, Broadbent, Dancer, Pocock and Myatt were among the largest and best gardenersaround London, and since then several of these grand old gentlemen havepassed away and their fields have been cut up and built upon. At thattime mushrooms were one of the general crops, as were snap beans orcauliflower, and in their season were planted as a matter of course. To-day they have become a specialty, and some gardeners devote theirwhole energy to mushroom-growing alone, and make from $2000 to $5000 ayear clear profit from one acre of mushrooms, and that, too, from ridgesin the open field! There is no other field crop that yields such a largeprofit. There they get twenty-four to forty-eight cents a pound fortheir fresh mushrooms, here we get fifty cents to a dollar a pound forours. But as mushroom-growing there is confined to fall, winter andspring, those gardeners who restrict themselves to mushrooms only devotethe summer months to making mushroom spawn for their own use, and alsofor sale. 

Mr. John F. Barter, of Lancefield street, London, the king of Londonmushroom growers, writes me under date of Dec. 10, 1888: "I employ menfor mushroom bed-making from August to March; then, in order to keep onthe same staff, I get about 10, 000 bushels of brick spawn made up forsale. . . . By the sale of spawn I make just half of my living. " Now let ussee: 10, 000 bushels = 160, 000 bricks, and each brick weighs a pound, thus we have 160, 000 pounds. At ten cents a pound (retail price) thetotal is $16, 000; at five cents a pound (supposed wholesale price)$8000, or at three and a half cents a pound (supposed manufacturer'sprice) $5600. 

The manure is obtained from the city stables and hauled home by thegardeners on their return trips from market. The manure collected aftermidsummer is used for mushrooms, and an effort is made to save the verybest horse manure for this purpose. When enough has accumulated for abed the manure is turned and well shaken, removing only the rougher partof the straw, and thrown into a large pyramidal pile to heat; this shapeis adopted as being better than the flat form for keeping out rain. Inthree or four days the manure is again turned, shaken out and piled upas before; after this it is turned every second day, unless it rains, until it has been turned six or seven times in all. It should then beready for making into ridges. 

The site for the beds should be a warm, well-sheltered piece of ground, either in the open field or orchard; much pains should be exercised toprotect it from cold winds. Although a great many mushroom ridges aremade under the partial shade of apple and pear trees, I always preferredmaking them in the open ground. The land should be dry and of a slightlyelevated or sloping nature, so that no pools of water can possiblycollect on the surface. Having the ground cleared, leveled, and ready, mark it off into strips two feet wide and six feet wide alternately. Thetwo feet wide space is for the mushroom bed, the six feet wide one forthe space between the beds; but after the ridges are built, earthed overand covered with straw, they are almost six feet wide at the base. Thecommon sizes of ridges are two feet wide by two feet high, and two andone-half feet wide by two and one-half feet high, and taper to six oreight inches wide at top. 

The manure being ready and the site for the beds lined off, the manureis carted to the place and wheeled upon the beds. In making the bedshake out the manure well and evenly to cause it to hold together, tampit with the back of the fork as you go along, and two or three timesbefore the ridges are completed walk upon and tread the manure downsolidly with the feet, and trim down the sides to turn the rain water. Two days after the bed is made up some holes should be bored from thetop to nearly the bottom with a small iron bar to let the heat off andprevent the inside of the bed from becoming too dry. Make them aboutnine inches apart all along the center of the bed. The old gardeners didnot use the crowbar. They were very particular not to build their ridgesbefore the chances of overheating were considered past; butnotwithstanding all their care some of their beds would get overwarm, when, without a moment's hesitation, they tossed them over, part to theright and part to the left, and left the manure thus exposed for a dayor two to cool, and then make up the beds again on the same site. 

Brick spawn is always used. Some of those who make a specialty ofmushrooms also make spawn for sale as well as for their own use; but themajority of the gardeners prefer to buy rather than make their ownspawn. 

When the heat has fallen to between 80° and 90° the ridges are spawned, the pieces inserted in three rows along each side, leaving about nineinches between the pieces. A dibber should not be used on any account. The spawn is put in tightly with the hand and the manure pressed down. It should be put in level with the face of the bed, so that the mold mayjust touch it when the bed is cased. In the event of cold or wetweather, just as soon as the beds are spawned a slight covering of ranklitter is laid over them. After a few days this is removed and the bedsare molded over with mold from ground to which manure has not beenapplied for some time. But the general market gardeners do not make thisdistinction; they use the earth from between the ridges, which has beenmanured regularly every year for a couple of hundred years or more. Themold is put on evenly with the spade and is about two inches thick atthe base of the ridge and one inch thick at top, and well firmed bybeating with the back of the spade; indeed, the ridges are now commonlywatered through a water-pot rose, again beaten very firmly and thesurface left smooth and even. This smooth surface readily sheds rainwater, but I question if it has any advantage over a well-firmedunglazed surface. After molding the beds are covered with litter, thatis, the rankest straw that had been shaken out of the manure, to a depthof four, six, eight, or ten inches, according to the state of the bedand weather; if the bed is inclined to be cool or if the weather iscold, thicken the covering. 

Drenching or long drizzling rains are more injurious to the beds than iscold, and in order to ward them off old Russia mats and any other sortof cloth or carpet covering obtainable is laid over the litter on thebeds and weighted down with poles, boards, stones, or anything else thatis convenient. Do not disturb this covering for about four weeks, andthen on a dry day strip it off and shake up the litter loosely so as todry it. If there is any white mold on the surface of the soil take ahandful of straw and rub it off. If the bed is rather cold put a layerof clean, dry hay next the bed, and on top of this replace the litterycovering. 

[Illustration: FIG. 27. THE COVERED RIDGES. ]

The first beds are made in August, and one or more every month aftertill March, just as time, convenience and material permit. Summer bedsare not attempted unless in exceptional cases. The bulk of the beds aregenerally put in in September and October. In early fall, also inspring, beds yield mushrooms in about six weeks after spawning; inwinter they take eight or nine weeks or more, much depending on theweather. 

In cold weather the mushrooms are gathered at noon-day; if the weatheris windy and it is possible to postpone gathering for another day thisis done, as the litter can not be replaced satisfactorily in windyweather. In gathering the mushrooms one man carefully pulls the strawdown from the top of the bed, rolling it toward him; another gathers themushrooms (pulling them out by the roots, never cutting them) intobaskets, and a third man covers up the bed. In this way the three men goup one side of the ridge and down the other, and the work is doneexpeditiously and well, without exposing any part of the bed more than aminute or two at a time. It is necessary that the uncovering be done byrolling the straw down from the top of the ridge; if it were rolled upthe covering on the other side of the ridge would be sure to slip down alittle, and break off many small mushrooms. The mushrooms as gatheredare of three grades; the large or wide-spread ones are called"broilers, " the full-sized ones whose neck frill is merely broken abouthalf an inch wide are "cups, " and the small white ones whose frills arenot broken at all are termed "buttons. " All of these are kept separate. They are marketed in different ways, but the growers who make mushroomsa specialty assort and pack them in chip baskets, boxes, or otherwise, as the metropolitan and provincial markets demand or suggest. Mr. JohnF. Barter, writing to me from London, says: "As to punnetts, we use thesame as for strawberries or peaches" (the abundance of peaches we havein America is unknown over there), "they hold just one pound. But it isgetting more general now to have little boxes made to hold say three tofive pounds each; these are better for packing in larger cases for longjourneys. "

The first cutting is a light one. After this the bed is cut twice a weekfor three weeks in mild weather, or once a week in inclement weather. The last two or three pickings are thin and only secured once a week. Altogether ten or eleven good pickings are gathered from each bed. 

I never knew of a single instance in which any attempt was made torenovate an old or worn-out bed. But when the beds become so dry as toneed watering a small handful of salt is dissolved in a large pailful ofwater and with this solution the beds are freely watered over the strawcovering, but never, to my knowledge, under it. 

My old friends, George Steele and Mr. Bagley, of Fulham Fields, used torun part of their beds east and west, not only for convenience sake sofar as the beds themselves were concerned, but with the view of growingearly tomatoes against the south side of these beds in summer, and herethey got their finest and earliest crops, for the London gardeners cannot grow tomatoes out of doors in the open fields as we can in America. Other gardeners clear away the manure for use elsewhere in their fields, and as it is so well rotted it is in capital condition for cauliflower, lettuces, snap beans, and other crops. But as the mushroom growers whorestrict themselves entirely to mushrooms, and who, after the mushroombeds have finished bearing, have no further use for the manure in thespent beds, are always able to dispose of it at one-half the cost price. It is excellent for garden crops and as a topdressing for lawns, onaccount of its fineness and freedom from all rubbish as sticks, stones, old bottles, old shoes, and the like, is in much demand. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

MUSHROOM GROWING IN THE PARIS CAVES. 

In caves and subterranean passages underneath the city of Paris and itsenvirons, thousands of tons of mushrooms are artificially produced everyyear. These underground caves and tunnels are abandoned quarries fromwhich white building stone and plaster have been excavated, and as theveins of stone permeated through the bowels of the earth, 40 to 125 feetdeep, so were they quarried, and the blocks brought to the surfacethrough vertical shafts. It is these tunnels, varying in height andwidth as the veins of stone varied, that are now used formushroom-growing. M. Lachaume, in his book, _The Cave Mushroom_, tellsus: "In the Department of the Seine there are 3000 quarries; those whichhave been abandoned and which are situated close to Paris at Montrouge, Bagneux, Vaugirard, Méry, Châtillon, Vitry, Honilles, and St. Denis, areused by the 250 mushroom-growers of the Department. There are several ofthese quarries with horizontal galleries driven into the calcareous rockfrom the level of the road, which are mostly large enough to accommodatea good sized cart, but the majority can only be entered, like many coalmines, by vertical shafts 100 to 125 feet deep, down which everythinghas to pass. The laborers climb up and down a ladder, and the freshmanure is shoveled down the shaft from above, the waste stuff andmushrooms being hauled up in baskets from beneath by means of awindlass. "

The manure used is obtained from the Paris stables and furnished bycontractors, with whom the mushroom growers make special bargainsbecause they are very particular about the kind and quality of themanure they use. Some of these growers use as much as 2000 to 3500 tonsof manure each a year for their mushroom beds. To the caves in theimmediate neighborhood of Paris the manure is hauled out in carts, butto Méry and other places too far distant to be within easy cartingdistance it is sent by rail. The mushroom growers consider that themanure from animals that are worked hard and abundantly fed on dry, goodfood is the best; the droppings from these are always dry and rich inammonia, nitrogen and phosphates. The manure from entire horses that areworked hard they regard as the best, and, next in value, that frommules. The manure from horses kept for pleasure, such as carriage andriding horses, is regarded as poor, notwithstanding the high feeding ofthese animals, and the manure from horses fed on grass or roots, alsothat of cows, as worthless. Stress is laid on the importance of having agood deal of urine-soaked straw in the manure, and this is anotherreason why manure from draught horses is preferred to that from animalskept for pleasure, as the bedding of the former is not apt to be kept soclean as that in aristocratic stables. 

The preparation of the manure is conducted near the mouth of the cavesor shafts on a level, dry piece of ground, and altogether out of doors. As soon as sufficient manure for a pile is obtained it is forked over, thoroughly shaken up and intermixed, divested of all extraneous mattersuch as sticks, stones, bottles, scrap iron, old shoes, and the like wefind in city stable manure, and any dry straw is moistened with water. It is then squared off into a heap forty inches high and trodden down tothirty inches high. In this state it is left for about six days, when itis turned, shaken up loosely, the outside turned to the inside, and alldry parts watered; the same shallow square form is retained, and it isagain trodden down firm. In about six days more it is again turned, shaken up, watered, squared off, and trodden as before. In about threedays after this it should be fit for use and may be turned, shaken uploosely, and dumped down the shaft into the cave and carried to the spotwhere the beds are to be formed. Of course these operations must bemodified according to circumstances and the condition of the manure. 

In making the beds the ground is first marked off. The first bed is madealongside of the wall, and rounded to the front; the other beds runparallel with this and may be straight, crooked, or wavy, as theinterior of the cave may suggest. The beds are all ridge-shaped, eighteen to twenty inches wide at the base, eighteen to twenty incheshigh in the middle, six inches wide at top, and the sides sloping. Pathways twelve inches wide run between the beds. The workmen build thebeds by piece-work and receive one-half cent per running foot. A goodworkman can make 240 feet a day (_Lachaume_). The beds are built neatlyand firmly and with much nicety as regards size and proportions. But theworkmen do not use a fork or any other tool in the construction of thebeds; they lift, shake up, spread and build the manure with their nakedhands and pack it firm with their knees. 

The spawn is obtained from the working beds and is what the mushroomgrowers there call "virgin" spawn, though not at all what we know bythat term. As a succession of beds is kept up all the year round it isan easy matter for the growers to get their spawn at any time. The besttime to get the spawn is when the young mushrooms are first appearing. Abed or part of a bed in capital working order is selected and broken upand the cakes of manure thoroughly matted up with the active myceliumare selected for spawning the fresh beds. It is asserted that from thisactive spawn crops of mushrooms appear in twenty days' less time than ifdry spawn were used. 

The French spawn is used. Somewhere between the seventh and fourteenthday after making the bed it will be in condition for spawning. Break thespawn into pieces between two and three inches long, two inches wide, and three-fourths of an inch thick, and insert these pieces in two rowsalong the sides of the ridges; the first row eight inches above theground, the second row eight inches above the first, and the pieces putin quincunx fashion eight inches apart in the row. The manure is firmlypacked in upon the spawn, the surface left smooth and even and withoutbeing further disturbed until earthing time. 

Much stress is laid upon stratifying the spawn before using, when dryspawn is employed. About eight days before a bed is to be spawned thedry spawn is spread out in a row on the floor of the cave or cellar sothat it may absorb moisture and the mycelium begin to run. At spawningtime these cakes or flakes are broken up and used in the ordinary way, and, it is claimed, with a week's difference in favor of the earlyappearing of the mushrooms. But no more spawn than is necessary forimmediate use should be stratified, for it will not bear being dried anddamped again. 

The chips and powder of the stone which has been taken out of the quarryand which can be had in abundance on the floor of the quarry or on thesurface of the ground around the shaft, are sifted, and the finer partsaved and mixed with earth in the proportion of three parts of stonedust to one of earth, and with this the beds are molded over. Thepowdered stone is strongly impregnated with salts, so advantageous tothe mushrooms. 

In seven to nine days after spawning, the beds are ready for earthingover. This depends upon the condition of the spawn and how well it hasrun in the manure. Before being earthed over the outside surface of thebeds should be covered with white filaments radiating in all directionswhich give to the beds a bluish appearance. When the bed is in theproper state for being covered with earth the mold is laid on equallyand firmly over the surface about three-fourths of an inch deep. It isthen thoroughly watered through a fine-rosed watering pot and allowed tosettle until the next day, when it is beaten solid by the back of awooden shovel. The bed now needs no further care until the youngmushrooms appear, except a light occasional watering should it get dry. 

[Illustration: FIG. 28. IN THE MUSHROOM CAVES OF PARIS. ]

In spacious, high-roofed caves the mean temperature is about 52° F. , while in narrow, low-roofed ones it is about 68°. Of course this makes awide difference in the time of bearing and duration of the beds made inthe different caves; those in the warm caves come into bearing soonerand stop bearing quicker than do those in the high-roofed caves. On anaverage the first mushrooms appear in about forty days after the bedsare spawned, and the beds continue bearing for forty or sixty days, buttoward the end of that time the yield diminishes very rapidly. 

They are gathered once a day, usually about midnight, so that they mayreach the Paris market early in the morning. In size the mushrooms rangefrom three-fourths to one and five-eighths inches in diameter of top, and are pure white in color. The workmen always gather the mushrooms byplucking them out by the roots, and never by cutting them; the gatherershave two baskets, carried knapsack fashion on their back; one is toreceive the mushrooms as they are picked, the other contains mold withwhich to fill in the little holes made by pulling the mushrooms out ofthe bed. In some caves one man gathers the mushrooms and leaves them inlittle piles on the bed as he goes along, a woman comes after him andplaces them in a basket, and a man follows her and fills up the holeswith earth. Before bringing the mushrooms up out of the caves they arecovered over with a cloth to avoid contact with the outer air, which isapt to turn them brown. They are then placed in baskets that containtwenty-three to twenty-five pounds and sent to market, where they aresold at auction as they arrive. Or they may be sent topreserved-vegetable manufacturers, who contract for them at an all roundprice. 

[Illustration: FIG. 29. GATHERING MUSHROOMS IN THE PARIS CAVES FORMARKET. ]

Proper ventilation is regarded as being of great importance, not onlyfor the sake of the workmen, but also for the mushrooms, which will notthrive in an impure atmosphere. Ventilation is afforded by means ofnarrow shafts surmounted by tall wooden chimneys whose upper ends arecut at an angle so that the beveled side faces north. In order to avoidsudden changes of temperature and strong draughts, fires, trap doors, and other means employed in assisting the ventilation of coal minesare adopted. To stop strong draughts, too, in the passages, tall, straw-thatched hurdles are set up. In narrow caves the breath of theworkmen, the gases given off by fermentation, and the products ofcombustion of the lamps would soon so vitiate the atmosphere as torender the caves uninhabitable were they not properly ventilated. Indeed, it frequently occurs that caves in which mushrooms have beengrown continuously for some years have to be abandoned for a year or twobecause the crop has ceased to prosper in them. But after they have beenthoroughly cleared of all beds and the surface soil that would have beenlikely to be touched or affected by the manure, and ventilated andrested for a year or two, mushrooms can again be grown in themsuccessfully. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

COOKING MUSHROOMS. 

Fresh mushrooms, well cooked and well served, are one of the mostdelicious of all vegetables. If we grow our own mushrooms we can gatherthem in their finest form, cook them as we please, and enjoy them intheir most delightful condition. If we are dependent upon the fields weshould be careful to gather only such mushrooms as are young, plump, andfresh, and reject all that are old or discolored, or betray any signs ofthe presence of disease or insects. And in the case of store mushrooms, that is, the ones we get at the fruiterer's or other provision store, weshould examine them critically before using them to see that they areperfectly free from "flock, " "black spot, " "maggots, " or other ailment, and discard all that have any symptoms of disease. 

The small, short-stemmed, white-skinned mushrooms offered for sale areof the variety known as French mushrooms, and on account of their whiteappearance are preferred by many; the longer-stemmed, broader-headed, and darker-colored kind that we also find offered for sale is what isknown as the English mushroom. The French mushrooms are the mostattractive in appearance and preferred in the market, but the Englishvariety is the best flavored and generally the most liked for home use. 

As soon as the frill around the neck breaks apart the mushroom is fit togather; keeping it longer may add to its size a little, but surely willdetract from its tenderness. The gills of the mushrooms will retaintheir pink tinge for a day after the frill breaks open, but they soongrow browner and blacker, until in a few days they are unfit for food. In gathering, the mushrooms should be pulled and never cut, and kept inthis way until ready to prepare them for cooking. By retaining the stemuncut the mushroom holds its freshness and plumpness much longer than itwould were the stems removed. Keep them in a cool, dark place, and in anearthenware vessel with a cover or a thick, damp cloth thrown over it;this will preserve their plumpness. If the frill is broken wide apartwhen the mushrooms are gathered, the caps are apt to open out flat in aday or two, and the gills darken and spread their spores, just as if themushrooms were still unsevered from the ground. 

Carefully inspect the mushrooms before cooking them. If the gills areblack and the mushrooms are too old do not use them; if the cap isperforated by insects discard it, as it is very likely there are maggotsinside; or if there are dark brown spots ("black spot") on the top ofthe caps throw the mushrooms away. Old mushrooms are tough, ill-looking, bad-tasting and indigestible, and those infested by insects, althoughnot poisonous, are very repugnant, and should not be used. But thedangerous mushroom is the one affected by "Flock. "

Mushrooms should be gathered free from grit; if at all gritty theyrequire washing, which spoils them. All large mushrooms should be peeledbefore they are cooked; the skin of the cap parts freely from the flesh, but the skin of the stem must be rubbed or scraped off. The gills shouldnot be removed as they are the most delicate meat of the mushroom, butif the mushrooms are old and intended for soup the gills should bescraped out with the view of getting rid of their darkening influence inthe soup. In the case of small button mushrooms, which can not bereadily skinned, they should be rubbed over with a soft cloth dipped invinegar, so as to remove the outer part of the skin. While the stems maybe retained with the buttons, they should always be removed from thefull-grown mushrooms. 

Mushrooms should always be served hot, and they should be eaten as soonas cooked. In the case of baked mushrooms and others prepared in asomewhat similar way they should be covered in the oven by an inverteddish, soup plate, basin, or the like, and if possible brought to thetable in this way and without the cover removed. Set the tin upon a mator cold plate upon the table, then uncover and serve on hot plates. Bythis means the delicious aroma is preserved. 

=Baked Mushrooms. =--Peel and stem the mushrooms, rub and sprinkle alittle salt on the gills, and lay the mushrooms, gills up, on a shallowbaking tin and put a small piece of butter on each mushroom. Place aninverted saucer or deep plate over them in the tin, and put them into abrisk oven for about twenty minutes. Then take them out and serve upon ahot plate, without spilling any of the juice that has collected in themiddle of each mushroom. Send to table and eat at once. This is thecommon way of cooking mushrooms, and by it is secured the true mushroomaroma and taste in their perfection. 

=Stewed Mushrooms. =--Peel and stem the mushrooms. Take an enameledsaucepan, put a lump of butter in it and melt it, then put in themushrooms, and season with salt and pepper and a small piece of poundedmace (if you like it), then cover the saucepan tightly and stew themushrooms gently until they are tender, which will be in about half anhour. Have ready some toast, either dry or fried in butter, aspreferred; spread out upon a hot dish, place the mushrooms upon thetoast, with the gills uppermost, pour the juice over them, and servehot. Button mushrooms are the ones usually selected for stewing, butwhile nicer and whiter they are not so finely flavored as the full sizedones. 

Another way of preparing stewed mushrooms is to stem and peel them; dipin water containing lemon juice (this is to prevent their becomingdark-colored in cooking, or giving a dark color to the stew), and drainthem dry. Put them into a stewpan, with a good-sized lump of butter andsome nice gravy, and let them stew for about ten minutes. Take a littlestock or cream, beat up some flour in it quite smooth, and add a littlelemon juice and grated nutmeg. Add this to the mushrooms and cookbriskly for about ten minutes longer, or until tender. 

=Soyer's Breakfast Mushrooms. =--Place some freshly-made toast, divided, on a dish, and put the mushrooms, stemmed and peeled, gills upward uponit; add a little pepper and salt and put a small bit of butter in themiddle of each mushroom. Pour a teaspoonful of cream over each, and addone clove for the whole dish. Put an inverted basin over the whole. Bakefor twenty or twenty-five minutes, and do not remove the basin until thedish is brought to the table, so as to preserve the grateful aroma. Adelightful dish. 

=Mushrooms à la Crême. =--Peel and stem the mushrooms, roll a lump ofbutter in flour and put it into the saucepan, then add the mushrooms andsome salt, white pepper, a little sugar and finely chopped parsley. Stewfor ten minutes. Take the yolks of two eggs beaten up with two largespoonfuls of cream, and add the mixture gradually to the stew; cook fora few minutes longer, and serve hot. This is a delicious dish, but thefine mushroom flavor is not as pronounced in it as it is in the plainbake or stew. 

=Curried Mushrooms. =--Peel and stem a pound of mushrooms, sprinkle withsalt, add a little butter, and stew gently for fifteen or twenty minutesin a little good stock or gravy. Then add four tablespoonfuls of creamand one teaspoonful of good curry powder previously well mixed with twoteaspoonfuls of wheat flour. Mix carefully and cook for five or tenminutes longer, and serve on hot toast on hot plates. A capital dishmuch enjoyed by those who like curry. 

=Broiled Mushrooms. =--Select large, open, fresh mushrooms, stem and peelthem. Put them on the gridiron, stem side down, over a bright but notvery hot fire, and cook for three minutes. Then turn them and put asmall piece of butter in the middle of each, and broil for about tenminutes longer. Put them in hot plates, gills upward, and place anothersmall piece of butter on each mushroom, together with a little pepperand salt, and flavor with lemon juice or Chili vinegar, and put theminto the oven for a minute or two. Then send them to table. 

=Mushroom Soup. =--Take a quantity of fresh young mushrooms, and peel andstem them. Stew them with a little butter, pepper and salt, and somegood stock, till tender; take them out and chop them up quite small;prepare a good stock, as for any other soup, and add it to the mushroomsand the liquor they have been stewed in. Boil all together, and serve. If white soup is required use white button mushrooms and a good vealstock, adding a spoonful of cream or a little milk as the color mayrequire. This is a nice soup and tastes good. If the mushrooms are veryyoung they have but little flavor; if they are full grown they darkenthe soup, and if they are brown in the gills when used the soup will bedisagreeably dark. If, after preparing, but before cooking themushrooms, you pour some boiling water over them and into this drop alittle vinegar or lemon juice, then drain them off through a colander, you can prevent, to a great extent, their darkening influence on thesoup, but always at the expense of their flavor. 

=Mushroom Stems. =--The stems of young, fresh mushrooms are excellent toeat, but those of old or stale mushrooms are unfit for food. In the caseof plump, fresh, full-sized mushrooms, the upper part of the stem, thatis, the portion between the frill and the socket in the cap, is used, but the portion below the frill, that is, the "root" end, is discarded. Any part of the stem that is discolored or tough or woody should berejected, and only the portion that is succulent and brittle and of aclean white color at any time used. The stems are nearly always retainedin "button" mushrooms when they are cooked, and the upper or succulentparts of the stems of plump, fresh, full-grown mushrooms are oftencooked along with the caps, but when cooking full-grown mushrooms weprefer, in all cases, to completely remove the stems from the mushrooms, and cook both separately. The stems are not so tender or deliciouslyflavored as are the caps, but are excellent for ketchup, or flavoring, or a sauce for eating with boiled fowl. In cooking the stems they shouldbe peeled by scraping, for they can not be skinned like the caps. 

=Potted Mushrooms. =--Select nice button or unopen mushrooms, and to aquart of these add three ounces of fresh butter, and stew gently in anenameled saucepan, shaking them frequently to prevent burning. After afew minutes dust a little finely powdered salt, a little spice, and afew grains of cayenne over them, and stew until tender. When cooked turnthem into a colander standing in a basin, and leave them there untilcold; then press them into small potting-jars, and fill up the jars withwarm clarified butter, and cover with paper tied down and brushed overwith melted suet to exclude the air. Keep in a cool, dry place. Thegravy should be retained for flavoring other gravies, sauces, etc. 

=Gilbert's Breakfast Mushrooms. =--Get half grown mushrooms, peel themand lay them, gills-side upward, on a plate; put to each a small pieceof butter, but only one layer thick; pepper and salt to taste; add twotablespoonfuls of ketchup and one of water; press round the rim of theplate a strip of paste, get another plate of the same size pressedfirmly in the paste; put the whole in a brisk oven for twenty-fiveminutes. The top plate should be left on until served. 

=Baked Mushrooms. =--(A breakfast, luncheon, or supper dish. )Ingredients: Sixteen or twenty mushroom flaps, butter, pepper to taste. Mode. For this mode of cooking the mushroom flaps are better than thebuttons, and should not be too large. Cut off a portion of stalk, peelthe top, and wipe the mushrooms carefully with a piece of flannel and alittle fine salt. Put them into a tin baking dish, with a very smallpiece of butter placed on each mushroom; sprinkle over a little pepper, and let them bake for about twenty minutes, or longer should themushrooms be very large. Have ready a very hot dish, pile the mushroomshigh in the center, pour the gravy round, and send them to table quicklyon very hot plates. 

=Broiled Mushrooms. =--(A breakfast, luncheon, or supper dish. )Ingredients: Mushrooms, pepper and salt to taste, butter, lemon juice. Mode. Cleanse the mushrooms by wiping them with a piece of flannel and alittle salt; cut off a portion of the stalk and peel the tops; broilthem over a clear fire, turning them once, and arrange them on a veryhot dish. Put a small piece of butter on each mushroom, season withpepper and salt and squeeze over them a few drops of lemon juice. Placethe dish before the fire, and when the butter is melted serve very hotand quickly. Moderate sized flaps are better suited to this mode ofcooking than the buttons; the latter are better in stews. 

=Mushrooms à la Casse, Tout. =--Ingredients: Mushrooms, toast, two ouncesof butter, pepper and salt. Mode. Cut a round of bread one-half an inchthick, and toast it nicely; butter both sides and place it in a cleanbaking sheet or tin; cleanse the mushrooms as in preceding recipe, andplace them on the toast, head downwards, lightly pepper and salt them, and place a piece of butter the size of a nut on each mushroom; coverthem with a finger glass and let them cook close to the fire for ten ortwelve minutes. Slip the toast into a hot dish, but do not remove theglass cover until they are on the table. All the aroma and flavor of themushrooms are preserved by this method. The name of this excellentrecipe need not deter the careful housekeeper from trying it. Withmoderate care the glass cover will not crack. In winter it should berinsed in warm water before using. 

=Stewed Mushrooms. =--Ingredients. One pint mushroom buttons, threeounces of fresh butter, white pepper and salt to taste, lemon juice, oneteaspoonful of flour, cream or milk, one-fourth teaspoonful of gratednutmeg. Mode. Cut off the ends of the stalks and pare neatly a pint ofmushroom buttons; put them into a basin of water with a little lemonjuice as they are done. When all are prepared take them from the waterwith the hands, to avoid the sediment, and put them into a stewpan withthe fresh butter, white pepper, salt, and the juice of one-half a lemon;cover the pan closely and let the mushrooms stew gently from twenty totwenty-five minutes, then thicken the butter with the above proportionof flour, add gradually sufficient cream, or cream and milk, to make thesauce of a proper consistency, and put in the grated nutmeg. If themushrooms are not perfectly tender stew them for five minutes longer, remove every particle of butter which may be floating on the top, andserve. 

=Broiled Beefsteak and Mushrooms. =--Ingredients: Two or three dozensmall button mushrooms, one ounce of butter, salt and cayenne to taste, one tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup. Mode. Wipe the mushrooms freefrom grit with a piece of flannel, and salt; put them in a stewpan withthe butter, seasoning, and ketchup; stir over the fire until themushrooms are quite done. Have the steak nicely broiled, and pour over. The above is very good with either broiled or stewed steak. 

=To Preserve Mushrooms. =--Ingredients: To each quart of mushrooms allowthree ounces of butter, pepper and salt to taste, the juice of onelemon, clarified butter. Mode. Peel the mushrooms, put them into coldwater, with a little lemon juice; take them out and dry them verycarefully in a cloth. Put the butter into a stewpan capable of holdingthe mushrooms; when it is melted add the mushrooms, lemon juice, and aseasoning of pepper and salt; draw them down over a slow fire, and letthem remain until their liquor is boiled away and they have become quitedry, but be careful in not allowing them to stick to the bottom of thestewpan. When done put them into pots and pour over the top clarifiedbutter. If wanted for immediate use they will keep good a few dayswithout being covered over. To rewarm them put the mushrooms into astewpan, strain the butter from them, and they will be ready for use. 

=Mushroom Powder. =--(A valuable addition to sauces and gravies whenfresh mushrooms are not obtainable. ) Ingredients: One-half peck of largemushrooms, two onions, twelve cloves, one-fourth ounce of pounded mace, two teaspoonfuls of white pepper. Mode. Peel the mushrooms, wipe themperfectly free from grit and dirt, remove the black fur, and reject allthose that are at all worm-eaten; put them into a stewpan with the aboveingredients, but without water; shake them over a clear fire till allthe liquor is dried up, and be careful not to let them burn; arrangethem on tins and dry them in a slow oven; pound them to a fine powder, which put into small dry bottles; cork well, seal the corks, and keep itin a dry place. In using this powder, add it to the gravy just beforeserving, when it will require one boil up. The flavor imparted by thismeans to the gravy ought to be exceedingly good. This should be made inSeptember, or at the beginning of October, and if the mushroom powderbottle in which it is stored away is not perfectly dry it will speedilydeteriorate. 

=Mushroom Powder. =--This is for use as a condiment. The finestfull-grown mushrooms--which are the best flavored--should be selectedand prepared for drying, and dried as stated under the heading of "DriedMushrooms, " except that it is better to dry them in an oven or dryingmachine so that they may be dried quickly and become brittle. Grate orotherwise reduce them to a fine powder, and preserve this intightly-corked bottles. 

=To Dry Mushrooms. =--Wipe them clean, take away the brown part and peeloff the skin; lay them on sheets of paper to dry, in a cool oven, whenthey will shrivel considerably. Keep them in paper bags, which hang ina dry place. When wanted for use put them into cold gravy, bring themgradually to simmer, and it will be found that they will regain nearlytheir usual size. 

=Dried Mushrooms. =--In the flush of the pasture-mushroom season gather alarge number of mushrooms of all sizes and see that they are thoroughlyclean; remove and discard the stems and peel the caps. Stir them aroundfor a few minutes in boiling water to which a little lemon juice orvinegar has been added to prevent them from turning dark colored. Somepeople use plain cold water, or cold water with lemon juice or vinegarin it. But never use salt in preparing mushrooms for drying, or else thesalted mushrooms will absorb moisture from the atmosphere and spoil. Take the mushrooms out of the water and drain them on a sieve, thenstring them and hang them up to dry and season in an open, airy shed, asone would strings of drying fruit. They may also be dried in a dryingmachine or oven as one would do with apples or peaches. They are used asa substitute for fresh mushrooms when the latter can not be obtained. Inpreparing dried mushrooms for use steep them in tepid water or milkuntil they become quite soft and plump, then drain them dry and cookthem in the same way as fresh mushrooms. While they are a goodsubstitute for the fresh article they are deficient in flavor. 

=Mushroom Ketchup. =--To each peck of mushrooms add one-half pound ofsalt; to each quart of mushroom liquor one-half ounce of allspice, one-half ounce of ginger, two blades of pounded mace, one-fourth ounceof cayenne. 

Choose full-grown mushroom flaps, and be careful that they are perfectlyfresh-gathered when the weather is tolerably dry; for if they are pickedduring rain the ketchup made from them is liable to get musty, and willnot keep long. Put a layer of them in a deep pan, sprinkle salt overthem, then another layer of mushrooms and so on alternately. Let themremain for a few hours, and break them up with the hand; put them in acool place for three days, occasionally stirring and mashing them wellto extract from them as much juice as possible. Measure the quantitywithout straining, and to each quart allow the above proportion ofspices, etc. Put all into a stone jar, cover it up very closely, put itin a saucepan of boiling water, set it over the fire and let it boil forthree hours. Have ready a clean stewpan; turn into it the contents ofthe jar, and let the whole simmer very gently for half an hour; pour itinto a pitcher, where it should stand in a cool place until the nextday; then pour it off into another pitcher and strain it into very dryclean bottles, and do not squeeze the mushrooms. To each pint of ketchupadd a few drops of brandy. Be careful not to shake the contents, butleave all the sediment behind in the pitcher; cork well, and either sealor rosin the cork, so as to exclude the air perfectly. When a veryclear, bright ketchup is wanted the liquor must be strained through avery fine hair sieve or flannel bag after it has been very gently pouredoff; if the operation is not successful it must be repeated until youhave quite a clear liquor. It should be examined occasionally, and if itis spoiling should be reboiled with a few peppercorns. Seasonable fromthe beginning of September to the middle of October, when this ketchupshould be made. 

=Mushroom Ketchup. =--This flavoring ingredient, if genuine and wellprepared, is one of the most useful store sauces to the experiencedcook, and no trouble should be spared in its preparation. Double ketchupis made by reducing the liquor to half the quantity; for example, onequart must be boiled down to one pint. This goes further than ordinaryketchup, as so little is required to flavor a good quantity of gravy. The sediment may also be bottled for immediate use, and will be foundto answer for flavoring thick soups or gravies. 

=Mushroom Ketchup. =--In making ketchup use the very best mushrooms, fullgrown but young and fresh, as it is highly important to secure fineflavor, and this we can not get from inferior mushrooms. Take a measureof fine fresh mushrooms and see that they are clean and free from grit;stem and peel them; cut them into very thin slices and place a layer ofthese on the bottom of a deep dish or tureen; sprinkle this layer withfine salt, then put in another layer and sprinkle with salt as before, and so on until the dish is full. The white succulent part of the stemsmay also be used in the ketchup, but never any discolored, tough orstringy part. On the top of all strew a layer of fresh walnut rind cutinto small pieces. Place the dish in a cool cellar for four or fivedays, to allow the contents to macerate. When the whole mass has becomenearly liquid pass it through a colander. Then boil down the strainedliquor to half of its bulk and add its own weight of calf's-foot jelly;season with allspice or white pepper and boil down to the consistence ofjelly. Pour into stoneware jars and keep in a cool place. 

=Pickled Mushrooms. =--Use sufficient vinegar to cover the mushrooms; toeach quart of mushrooms two blades of pounded mace, one ounce of groundpepper, salt to taste. Choose young button mushrooms for pickling, andrub off the skin with a piece of flannel and salt, and cut off thestalks; if very large take out the red gills and reject the black ones, as they are too old. Put them in a stewpan, sprinkle salt over them, with pounded mace and pepper in the above proportion; shake them wellover a clear fire until the liquor flows, and keep them there until itis all dried up again; then add as much vinegar as will cover them; letit simmer for one minute, and store it away in stone jars for use. Whencold tie down with bladder and keep in a dry place; they will remaingood for a long time, and are generally considered delicious. Make thisthe same time as ketchup, from the beginning of September to the middleof October. [The above recipes are furnished by Mrs. George Amberley, ofNew York City. ]

INDEX. 

Ammonia Arising, 54

Anguillulæ, 124 In Decaying Vegetation, 126 Scalding Water to Kill, 126 To Destroy, 114

Apparatus, Hot Water, 33

Atmosphere, Manure Steam for Moistening, 114 Remedying a too Dry, 114

Barn Cellars, 10

Bedding, Wetted with Urine, 58

Beds, 16 Alongside of Wall, 18 Banked Against a Wall, 53 Bearing in November, 25 Black Spot in the, 108 Boring Holes in, to Reduce Temperature, 76 Bottom of, 17 Box, 17 Casing, after Spawning, 100 Casing the, 104 Earthing Over the, 103 Experiments as to Proper Time to Case, 104 Fifteen Inches Thick, 22 Firmly Built, 76 Flat, 50 Flat, Sods fit only for, 107 Floor, 19 Flooring for the, 28 Green Sods, Method of Casing, 106 Killing the Mycelium in, 96 Loam for, 100 Manure, 20 Maximum Heat of Best, 75 Midwinter, 39 Mulching, 23 Mushroom, 12 Never Spawn, when Heat is Rising, 96 Odorless, in Dwelling House Cellars, 21 Of Low Temperature, 77 On the Floor, 13 Outside, 12 Parching Effect Visible on, 26 Picking "Fogged-off" Mushrooms from, 108 Rack, 13 Re-Invigorating Old, 120 Renovating Old, in England, 142 Ridge, 17 Second Crop from, 120 Shelf, 16, 29 Spawned at 66° to 70°, 97 Spawning and Molding, 14 Spawning the, 96 Spent Mushroom, 121 Stale, 76 Tamping Surface of, 23 Temperature of a Twelve Inch Thick Bed, 96 Ten or Twelve Inches Deep, 19 Tending the, 17 Three Feet Deep, 25 To Keep, Warm, 109 Topdressed, 23 Under Greenhouse Benches, To make, 53 Watering, 24 Watering the, 108 Watering Mushroom, 111 When Dry to be Watered, 111 Wide, With Pathway Above, * 44 Worn Out, 120

Beetles, Larvæ of Two, Destroying Mycelium, 132

Benches Covered, 40

Black Spot, 124 A Disease, 125 In Beds in Vigorous Bearing, 125 In New Beds, 125 Is Unwholesome, 126 To Prevent, 125

Boards, Stepping, 17

Boiler and Pipes, 32

Boilers, Hitching's Base-burner, 31

Boxing, 19 Lid for, 19 Old Carpet or Matting Over, 19

"Bullet" or "Shot" Holes in Mushrooms, 128

Bugs, Mealy, 12

Calico, 18

Caves, 17

Caves of Paris, In the, * 147 Paris, Description of, 143 French Spawn Used in, 146 Gathering Mushrooms for Market in the, 149 Making Beds in the, 145 Manure Used in the, 144 Material Used for and Method of Earthing Over in, 146 Methods of Regulating Draughts in the, 150 Preparation of Manure for the, 144 Paris, Spawn Used in the, and How Obtained, 145 Stratifying Spawn Before Using in the, 146 Temperature in Spacious, High Roofed, 147 Ventilation in the, 148 When and How Mushrooms are Gathered in the, 148

Ceiling, Flat, 37 Sloping, 36 Wet, 18

Cellar, Barn, 13 Cleanliness in the Mushroom, 26 Cool, 19 Cross-section of the Dosoris Mushroom, * 27 Dosoris Mushroom, 27 Divided, 30 Ground Plan of the Dosoris, * 28 Height of, 17 House, 13 Interior Arrangements of, 16 Mushroom, Under a Barn, * 16 Of Dwelling House, 18 Ordinary, 21 Outhouse, 18 Pent-up, 17 Unheated, 17 Vegetable, 12 Warm, 19 Wholly Devoted to Mushroom Growing, 15

Cellars, 10 Artificial Heating, 17 Cool, Airy, 20 Flat Roofed Mushroom, 18 Mushrooms in, 25 Potato, 18 Underground, 15, 27

Cistern, Large Underground, 18

Coal, Nut and Stove, 33

Cold and Vermin, 19

Cooking Mushrooms, 150

Crop, Common Average, 30 Gathering the, 17 Marketing the, 14 Yielding, 31

Crops, Capital, 17

Cut Flower Season, 11

Dirt, Roadside, 101

Doors, Double, 16 Outside, 35 Single, 16

Drip, Cold, Falling upon Beds, 36 Crop Suffering From, 51 From Benches, the Effects of, 51 In Commercial Greenhouses, 52 Plan for Warding off, 52

Dust and Noxious Gas, 17

Entrance, 16

Entrance Pits, 30

Economy, False, 37

Families, Private, 18

Farmers, 13

Flies, Manure, 126 Manure, Ill-favor of, 126 Manure Perfectly Harmless, 127

Fire, Danger of, 33

Flock, 132 How General is, 134 The Cause of, 133 The Habits and Manner of Growth of, 133 The Worst Mushroom Disease, 132 What it Looks Like, 134 What is, 133

Floor, A Dry, Necessary, 47 Common Earth, 47 Dry, 35, 39 Earthen, 21

Flooring, 29

Fogging Off, 106, 131 Favorable Conditions for, 132 The Cause of, 131

Florists, 11

Florists' Greenhouses, 10

Frame, Boxed-up with Straw Covering, * 19 Covered with Calico, 20 Covered with Oiled Paper, 20 Common Hotbed Box, 45 Preparing Beds in the, 46 Shading the, 47 Spawning in, 46

Frost, Hoar, 35 To Exclude, 40

Fruit Room, 12

Furnace, Boxed off, 17

Gardens, Private, 37

Grapery, Beds and Frames Inside the, 13

Greenhouse Bench, Boxed Mushroom Bed Under, * 41

Greenhouse Benches, Among Other Plants on, 48

Greenhouse Benches, On, 42

Greenhouse Benches, Under, 47

Greenhouses, Beds in Open, Airy, 53 Cool, 41 Growing Mushrooms in, 41 In Frames in, 44 Steam-heated, 48

Growers, Parisian, 60

Heat, Artificial not Absolutely Necessary, 17 Fire, 17 Parching, 17

Heater, Base-burning Water, * 32 Vertical Section, * 32

Heating Apparatus, 28

Hoe, Angular-pointed, 23

Hops, Spent, 68 Spent, Cost Nothing, 69

Horses, Those who Keep, 13

Hotbed Frames, 44

House, A Mushroom, 34 Cow, 13 Ground Plan of Mrs. Osborne's Mushroom, * 36 In Dwelling, 18 Interior Arrangement of Mushroom, 37 Interior View of Mr. Henshaw's Mushroom, * 33 Mr. Samuel Henshaw's, 37 Mushroom, Built Against North-facing Wall, * 34 Section of Mrs. Osborne's, * 35

Houses, Fruit-forcing, 12 Growing Mushrooms in Rose, 49 Lettuce, Mushrooms in, 50 Tomato-forcing, Mushrooms in, 49 Well-sheltered in Winter, 34

Insecticide, Common Salt as an, 113

Leaves, Condition of, to Heat, 68 Fermenting, Beds Composed of, 68 Oak, the Best, 67 Quick-rotting, 67 Tree, 67

Lettuce House, Moisture of, 10

Lice, Wood, 129

Loam and Manure, 11 Mixed, 72 Mixed, Temperature of, 77 Mixed, To Prepare, 73

Loam, Coating, 20 Common, for Casing, 100 Containing Old Manure, 101 Fibrous, Mellow, Best for Earthing Over, 103 Fresh Sod, 100 Heavy, Clayey, 101 Ordinary Field Soil, 26 Sod, Reasons for Use of, 73 Topdressing with, 107

Lot, Village or Suburban, 13

Manure, 13 Baled, 64 Cellar, 62 City Stable, 63 Common Horse, 21 Cow, 65 Cow, Necessary in Manufacture of Spawn, 66 Drying by Exposure, 71 Fermenting Fresh Horse, 24 "Fire-fanged, " 62 Firmly Packed, 70 Flies, 124, 126 Fresh, 12 Fresher the Better, 58 From City Stables, 26 German Peat Moss Stable, 66 Handling, 35 Homemade, 60 Horse, 57 Hog, Mycelium Evades, 63 Liquid, 113 Liquid, Cow and Sheep, 113 Of Entire Horses, 60 Of Horses fed with Carrots, 61 Of Mules, 62 Preparation of the, 69 Preserve the Wet and Strawy Part, 60 Proper Condition of, 72 Sawdust Stable, 66 Selected, 63 Steaming Hot, 24 The Best, 57 To Prevent "fire-fang" in, 70 Turning the, 14, 71 Warm, 13 Well-rotted, 14 Without Preparatory Treatment, 22

Market, A Good, 25 Gardener, 9, 15 Gardening near New York, 9

Markets, Brooklyn, 26 In Winter, 10

Materials, Exhausted, 16 For Beds, Fresh, 16 Waste of, 17

Method, Mr. Denton's, 25 Mr. Gardner's, 21 Mr. Van Siclen's, 27

Methods, Avoiding Complicated, 21

Mice and Rats, 130 Different Kinds of, 130 Fond of Mushrooms, 130

Mice, How they Disfigure Mushrooms, 130

Mites not a Mushroom Pest, 130 The Home of, 130 Two Kinds of, Common, 130

Moisture, Condensation of, 46

Mold on Beds, How Deep to Put, 105

Money, Pin- 14

Mushroom, A Perfect, * 116 Affected with Black Spot, * 125 Bed Built Flat on the Ground, * 52 Bed Five Feet Wide, Profit from, 12 Bed, Rigid, * 53 Beds, 11 Beds in England, How made, 137 Beds, Making up the, 74 Beds, Manure-fatted Loam in, 26 Beds, Manure for, 57 Beds, Mr. Wilson's, * 51 Beds on Greenhouse Benches, Objection to, 42 Beds, Sites for Around London, 137 Cellar, Perspective View of the Dosoris, * 58 Crop, 13 Flock-Diseased, * 133 Food, 24 Growing in the Paris Caves, 143 Growing Out of Doors a Specialty, 136 Growing, Profit of, Around London, 136 Growing, Success in, 12 House, A Regular, 12 House, Best Kind of, 11 House, Cellar Everybody's, 15 House, Damping Floors of, 115 Houses, Cleaning the, 135 Houses, Growing Mushrooms in, 34 Houses, Ideal, 15 Houses, Whitewashing, 135 Season Closed, 31 Spawn, 78 The "Horse, " 48 A Winter Crop, 14 Advantages of Pulling over Cutting, 117 After a Dry Summer, 55 And Grapevines, 13 Black Spot in, 124 Cause of Black Spot in, 124 English, 115 Filling Stump Holes with Fresh Loam, 117 Five Inch Diameter before Expanding, 47 For Family Use, 13 For Soups, When to Pick, 116 Fresh, 12 From Natural Spawn, 48 From October Until May, 30 Gathering and Marketing, 115 Gathering Field and Wild, 118 Gathering in Cold Weather, 140 Good, 19 Growing in Cellars, 15 Growing in Fields, 54 Growing, in Narrow Troughs, 59 Growing in Ridges Around London, 136 Growing in Sawdust, 67 Grown on Greenhouse Benches, * 43 Growth of from Spawning under Different Temperatures, 110 Head Room, 19 Importance of Care in Gathering and Packing for Shipment, 119 In August and September, 56 In Crates and Baskets, 118 In the Fields, Plan of Growing, 55 Insect and Other Enemies of, 122 Knack in Pulling, 117 Maggots in, 122, 124 "Maggots" in, appear in April, 123 Maggots, Size of, in, 123 Marketed in Paper Boxes, 118 Marketing, 118 Not a Bulky Crop, 11 On Greenhouse Bench Under Tomatoes, 45 Packed in Punnets for London Market, 119 Picking so as not to Disturb Buttons, 117 "Pin-Head, " 107 Profit on, Clear Gain, 51 Proper Manner of Picking, 116 Pulled, Keeping Qualities of, 117 Scooping Out the Stumps, 117 Sold by the Pound, 118 Sorting and Packing for Market, in England, 141 Summer Crops of, 123 Under the Benches, 11 When Fit to Pick, 115 Who Should Grow, 9 Wild, 55

Mulching, When to Remove, 42

Mycelium, Liquid to Encourage Spread of, 77

Odor, Bad, 20

Outbuildings, 12

Paper, Building, 52 Oiled, 18

Passage-ways, 18

Pathways, 16

Peat Moss, Bale of German, 66

Pipes, Heating, 17 Hot, Injury from, 48 Hot Water, 23 Sheet Iron, 27 Smoke, 33

Private Gardeners, 12

Rats, More Destructive than Mice, 131

Recipes for Cooking and Preserving Mushrooms, 150 A la Casse, Tout, 157 A la Crême, 154 Baked, 152, 156 Broiled, 154, 156 Broiled Beefsteak and, 158 Cooked, General Directions for Serving, 152 Cooking, 150 Cooking, General Preparation of, for, 151 Curried, 154 Dried, 160 Gilbert's Breakfast, 156 Ketchup, 160, 161, 162 Kind of, to Select for, 150 Pickled, 162 Potted, 155 Powder, 159 Soup, 154 Soyer's Breakfast, 153 Stems, 155 Stewed, 153, 157 To Dry, 159 To Preserve, 158

Ridges, 17 Casing the, 139 Covering the, 140 Covering with Litter, 139 Drenching Rains Injurious to, 139 First made in August, 140 For Growing Mushrooms in Open Field, 138 Method of Gathering Mushrooms from, 141 Smoothing the, 139 The Covered, * 140 Watering the, 139

Roof, 35

Roofs water-tight, 39 Of Tin, 38 With Coating of Salt Hay, 38

Salad Plants, 10

Sashes, 46

Secret, No, 14

Shading on Sunny Days, 42

Shaft, Chimney-like, 16

Shaft, Tall, Wooden, 28

Shed, Open on South Side, 39 Potting, 12 Warm Potting, 40 The Term Applied, 40 Tool, 12 Wood, 12

Sheds, Growing Mushrooms in, 39 Unheated, 40

Shelves, Temporary Structures, 25

Shutters, Light Wooden, 53

Slugs, 127 Attack Mushrooms in all Stages, 127 Biting into Stems of Mushrooms, 127 Fond of Mushrooms, 127 How to Catch and Kill, 128 Salt Distasteful to, 128 The Cause of "Bullet" or "Shot" Holes, 128

Soil, Conditions of for Casing, 105 Firming the, 106 From Slopes and Dry Hollows in Woods, 101 Ordinary Garden, 101 Peat, or Swamp Muck, 101 Sandy, 101 Sifting, for Casing, 105

Southern States, 10

Spawn, 13 American-made, 86 Amount of Imported, 80 Another Method by Lachaume, 94 Black Colored to be Avoided, 86 Breaking, 23 Brick, * 80 Brick, Cut in Pieces for Planting, * 97 Brick, How to Make, 87 Brick, the Best, 95 Depth to Plant, 98 Effect of Heat and Moisture Upon, 83 Effect of Severe Frost Upon, 83 English, 81 English Brick, 23 Flake, 82, 99 Flake, Does Best under Cover, 95 Flake or French, * 82 French, 82 French Flake, 24 Homemade Around London, 137 How to Distinguish Good from Poor, 84 How to Get, 79 How to Keep, 83 How to make French (Flake), 91 Imported from Europe, 79 In Leaf Beds, 68 In Manure, Do not Bury, 10 Inserting French or Flake, 98 Inserting more than Three Inches Deep, 105 Insuring Development of, 49 Lachaume's Method of Making, 93 Making, Distinct Branch, 87 Making French Virgin, 92 Mill-track, 81 Mr. J. Burton's Method of Making, 90 Natural, 81 New Versus Old, 83 Never use Dibber in Planting, 98 Other Recipes for Making, 89 Planting of in Open Fields, 54 Preparing the, 97 Principal American Growers of, 86 Relative Merits of Flake and Brick, 94 Signs of Sterility in, 85 Simplest Way of Making, 88 Steeped, 99 The Way in which it Comes, 81 To tell Quality by Smell of, 85 Transplanting Pieces of Working, 99 "Very Dead, " 84 "Very Living, " 84 Virgin, 82, 91 What is Mushroom, 78 Where Obtained, 79

Spiders, Red, 12

Spores, Myriads of, 78

Spurious Fungi, 102

Stable, Empty Stall in Horse, 13

Staging, Erecting Temporary, 46

Stairway, 16 In Pit, 32

Standard Crop, 9

Stoke-hole, 12

Stove, Common Iron, 26

Straw, Rye, 47

Sunlight, Protection from, 10

Temperature, 10 At Night, 41 About 57° Suitable, 23 Fluctuations of, 15 From 50° to 60°, 18 High, 19 In Dosoris Cellars, 109 In Midwinter, 33 Low, 15 Proper, 75, 109 Sudden Changes to be Avoided, 47 Too High, Guard Against, 76 Winter, 60° Necessary, 38

Thrips, 12

Toads, 131 Not to be Recommended, 131 Upheaving Clumps of Mushrooms, 131

Toadstools, 102 On Hotbeds, 102 On Manure Piles, 102

Trapping Rats and Mice, 131

Traps for Wood Lice, 129

Tunnel, Subterranean, 27

Ventilation, Assisting, 17

Ventilator, Chimney-like, 22

Ventilators, 16, 28 Side Window, 35 Window and Doors, 21

Village People and Suburban Residents, 13

Wall, Cold, not Injurious 30

Walls 35

Warmth, Artificial, 17 Steady, 17

Water, Manure, for Beds in Full Bearing, 112 Space and Double Casing, 32

Watering, Endeavor to Lessen Necessity of, 111 For, use Clean, Soft Water, 111 Over Mulching, 111 Pot, Size to use, 112

Wife, Farmer's, 14

Windows, 16

Winds, Piercing, and Draughts, 39

Women Searching for Remunerative Employment, 14

Wood Lice, 129 Abundant in Mushroom Houses, 129 Eating Potato, 129 How to Trap, 129

Work, Clean, 14

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 By Peter Henderson. A guide to the successful propagation and cultivation of florists' plants. The work is not one for florists and gardeners only, but the amateur's wants are constantly kept in mind, and we have a very complete treatise on the cultivation of flowers under glass, or in the open air, suited to those who grow flowers for pleasure as well as those who make them a matter of trade. The work is characterized by the same radical common sense that marked the author's "Gardening for Profit, " and it holds a high place in the estimation of lovers of agriculture. Beautifully illustrated. New and enlarged edition. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 50

=Harris's Talks on Manures. =

 By Joseph Harris, M. S. , author of "Walks and Talks on the Farm, " "Harris on the Pig. " etc. Revised and enlarged by the author. A series of familiar and practical talks between the author and the deacon, the doctor, and other neighbors, on the whole subject of manures and fertilizers; including a chapter specially written for it by Sir John Bennet Lawes, of Rothamsted, England. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 75

=Waring's Draining for Profit and Draining for Health. =

 This book is a very complete and practical treatise, the directions in which are plain, and easily followed. The subject of thorough farm drainage is discussed in all its bearings, and also that more extensive land drainage by which the sanitary condition of any district may be greatly improved, even to the banishment of fever and ague, typhoid and malarious fever. By Geo. E. Waring, Jr. Illustrated. Cloth 12mo. 1. 50

=The Practical Rabbit-Keeper. =

 By Cuniculus. Illustrated. A comprehensive work on keeping and raising Rabbits for pleasure as well as for profit. The book is abundantly illustrated with all the various Courts, Warrens, Hutches, Fencing, etc. , and also with excellent portraits of the most important species of rabbits throughout the world. 12mo. 1. 50

=Quinby's New Bee-Keeping. =

 The Mysteries of Bee-keeping Explained. Combining the results of Fifty Years' Experience, with the latest discoveries and inventions, and presenting the most approved methods, forming a complete work. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 50

=Profits in Poultry. =

 Useful and Ornamental Breeds and their Profitable Management. This excellent work contains the combined experience of a number of practical men in all departments of poultry raising. It is profusely illustrated and forms an unique and important addition to our poultry literature. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 00

=Barn Plans and Outbuildings. =

 Two Hundred and Fifty-seven Illustrations. A most Valuable Work, full of Ideas, Hints, Suggestions, Plans, etc. , for the Construction of Barns and Outbuildings, by Practical writers. Chapters are devoted, among other subjects, to the Economic Erection and Use of Barns. Grain Barns, House Barns, Cattle Barns, Sheep Barns, Corn Houses, Smoke Houses, Ice Houses, Pig Pens, Granaries, etc. There are likewise chapters upon Bird Houses, Dog Houses, Tool Sheds, Ventilators, Roofs and Roofing, Doors and Fastenings, Work Shops, Poultry Houses, Manure Sheds, Barn Yards, Root Pits, etc. Recently published. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 50

=Parsons on the Rose. =

 By Samuel B. Parsons. A treatise on the propagation, culture, and history of the rose. New and revised edition. In his work upon the rose, Mr. Parsons has gathered up the curious legends concerning the flower, and gives us an idea of the esteem in which it was held in former times. A simple garden classification has been adopted, and the leading varieties under each class enumerated and briefly described. The chapters on multiplication, cultivation, and training are very full, and the work is altogether one of the most complete before the public. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 00

=Heinrich's Window Flower Garden. =

 The author is a practical florist, and this enterprising volume embodies his personal experiences in Window Gardening during a long period. New and enlarged edition. By Julius J. Heinrich. Fully Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. . 75

=Liautard's Chart of the Age of the Domestic Animals. =

 Adopted by the United States Army. Enables one to accurately determine the age of horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, and pigs. . 50

=Pedder's Land Measurer for Farmers. =

 A convenient Pocket Companion, showing at once the contents of any piece of land, when its length and width are known, up to 1, 500 feet either way, with various other useful farm tables. Cloth, 18mo; . 60

=How to Plant and What to Do with the Crops. =

 With other valuable hints for the Farm, Garden and Orchard. By Mark W. Johnson. Illustrated. CONTENTS: Times for Sowing Seeds; Covering Seeds; Field Crops; Garden or Vegetable Seeds, Sweet Herbs, etc. ; Tree Seeds; Flower Seeds; Fruit Trees; Distances Apart for Fruit Trees and Shrubs; Profitable Farming; Green or Manuring Crops; Root Crops; Forage Plants; What to do with the Crops; The Rotation of Crops; Varieties; Paper Covers, post-paid. . 50

=Your Plants. =

 Plain and Practical Directions for the Treatment of Tender and Hardy Plants in the House and in the Garden. By James Sheehan. The above title well describes the character of the work--"Plain and Practical. " The author, a commercial florist and gardener, has endeavored, in this work, to answer the many questions asked by his customers, as to the proper treatment of plants. The book shows all through that its author is a practical man, and he writes as one with a large store of experience. The work better meets the wants of the amateur who grows a few plants in the window, or has a small flower Garden, than a larger treatise intended for those who cultivate plants upon a more extended-scale. Price, post-paid, paper covers. . 40

=Husmann's American Grape-Growing and Wine-Making. =

 By George Husmann of Talcoa vineyards, Napa, California. New and enlarged edition. With contributions from well-known grape-growers, giving a wide range of experience. The author of this book is a recognized authority on the subject. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 50

=The Scientific Angler. =

 A general and instructive work on Artistic Angling, by the late David Foster. Compiled by his Sons. With an Introductory Chapter and Copious Foot Notes, by William C. Harris, Editor of the "American Angler. " Cloth, 12mo. 1. 50

=Keeping One Cow. =

 A collection of Prize Essays, and selections from a number of other Essays, with editorial notes, suggestions, etc. This book gives the latest information, and in a clear and condensed form, upon the management of a single Milch Cow. Illustrated with full-page engravings of the most famous dairy cows. Recently published. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 00

=Law's Veterinary Adviser. =

 A Guide to the Prevention and Treatment of Disease in Domestic Animals. This is one of the best works on this subject, and is especially designed to supply the need of the busy American Farmer, who can rarely avail himself of the advice of a Scientific Veterinarian. It is brought up to date and treats of the Prevention of Disease, as well as of the Remedies. By Prof. Jas. Law. Cloth, Crown 8vo. 3. 00

=Guenon's Treatise on Milch Cows. =

 A Treatise on the Bovine Species in General. An entirely new translation of the last edition of this popular and instructive book. By Thos. J. Hand, Secretary of the American Jersey Cattle Club. With over 100 Illustrations, especially engraved for this work. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 00

=The Cider Maker's Handbook. =

 A complete guide for making and keeping pure cider. By J. M. Trowbridge. Fully Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1. 00

=Long's Ornamental Gardening for Americans. =

 A treatise on Beautifying Homes, Rural Districts, and Cemeteries. A plain and practical work at a moderate price, with numerous illustrations, and instructions so plain that they may be readily followed. By Elias A. Long. Landscape Architect. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 2. 00

=The Dogs of Great Britain, America and Other Countries. =

 New, enlarged and revised edition. Their breeding training and management, in health and disease; comprising all the essential parts of the two standard works on the dog, by "Stonehenge, " thereby furnishing for $2 what once cost $11. 25. Contains Lists of all Premiums given at the last Dog Shows. It Describes the Best Game and Hunting Grounds in America. Contains over One Hundred Beautiful Engravings, embracing most noted Dogs in both Continents, making together, with Chapters by American Writers, the most Complete Dog Book ever published. Cloth, 12mo. 2. 00

=Stewart's Feeding Animals. =

 By Elliot W. Stewart. A new and valuable practical work upon the laws of animal growth, specially applied to the rearing and feeding horses, cattle, diary cows, sheep and swine. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 2. 00

=How to Co-operate. =

 A Manual for Co-operators. By Herbert Myrick. This book describes the how rather than the wherefore of co-operation. In other words it tells how to manage a co-operative store, farm or factory, and co-operative dairying, banking and fire insurance, and co-operative farmers' and women's exchanges for both buying and selling. The directions given are based on the actual experience of successful co-operative enterprises in all parts of the United States. The character and usefulness of the book commend it to the attention of all men and women who desire to better their condition. 12mo. Cloth. 1. 50

Transcriber's Notes:

1. Changed Page 1 to Page 9 in Table of Contents Chapter I. 

2. Asterisks are used in the index to refer to illustrations.