Mushrooms: how to grow them, William Falconer [best novels to read to improve english TXT] 📗

In picking, always pull the mushrooms out by the root, and never, if practicable to avoid it, cut them over with a knife. In gathering, take hold of the mushrooms and give them a sharp but gentle twist, pressing them down at the same time, and they generally part from the bed without any trouble; then place them in the baskets, root-end down, so as to keep them perfectly clean and free from grit. Sometimes when several mushrooms are joined together in one root-stock and it is impossible to remove one without disturbing the whole, cut it over rather than pull it out. In the case of clumps of young mushrooms, where one can not be pulled out without displacing some of the others also, cut it out rather than pull it. There is a knack in pulling mushrooms, easily attained by practice. And even when they come up in thick bunches and it would appear impossible to pull out the full-grown ones without disturbing the others, a practiced hand will give them a twitch and a pull—they often part from the bed by the gentlest touch—and get them out without unfastening any of the multitude of small buttons that may be growing around 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 few days decay sets in and a fluffy or spongy substance grows around the old butt, which destroys many of the little mushrooms around it, as well as every thread of mycelium that comes in contact with it. One should be particular to scoop out these stumps with a knife before this condition takes 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 been cut. In the interest of the market grower they have another advantage. Mushrooms are bought and sold by weight, and as the stems are always retained to the caps all are weighed together; if part of the stems had been cut off the weight would have been reduced, and, in like proportion, the price; but if the stems are retained entire not only are the mushrooms benefited, but the weight, and with it the price, is also increased.

Gathering Field or Wild Mushrooms.—Go in search of them in the morning before the sunshine gets warm and they become too open or old. If you wish to gather and preserve them in their most perfect condition pull them up by the "roots," carefully remove any soil from them, and then lay them orderly in the basket, the root end down; and by spreading a stout sheet of paper over the layer, another may be arranged above it in the same way, and so on until the basket is full. But if you are not so 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 will answer well enough.

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

Mushrooms are sold by the pound, and come into market in boxes made of strong undressed paper. Some growers have light wooden boxes made that hold from one to four pounds of mushrooms each, and these make convenient and strong packages for shipping by express. They may be sent singly, or, as is the case with the paper boxes, several packed together in crates or boxes. In sending directly to hotels, cheap baskets, holding one or several pounds—Mr. Gardner's baskets hold twelve pounds—are often used, but in sending to commission merchants, who have to deal them out in quantities to suit customers, mushrooms should always be packed in one, two, three or four pound boxes or baskets, preferably one pound. Mushrooms are not like potatoes or apples, that can be handled, remeasured, and repacked without damaging them. Each rehandling will certainly discolor and perhaps break a good many of them, rendering them unsalable, if not worthless.

The utmost care in gathering and packing of mushrooms for shipping is of primary 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 short stems. Long stems have to be shortened, but not until everything is ready to pack them. With a very soft hair brush dust off any earth that may stick to the cap of the mushroom, and with a harder brush or the back of a knife rub the earth off of the root end of the stem. Then sort the mushrooms,—the big ones by themselves, the middle-sized by themselves, the small or button-sized ones by themselves, and pack each kind by itself. Pack very firmly without bruising, and so as to show the pretty caps to the best advantage. Never pack mushrooms more than two deep without using plenty of soft paper between the layers, and never put a heavy bulk of them into one box or basket. They discolor so easily that, all things considered, about a pound is enough in a box, if we wish them to carry safely and retain their bright, fresh skin without tarnishing.

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

RE-INVIGORATING OLD BEDS.

There is a wide-spread impression among horticulturists that worn out beds which have ceased to bear may, by means of watering and certain stimulants and warming up again, be so re-invigorated as to start into full bearing, and yield a second and a good crop. I have given this question much painstaking and practical consideration, and have absolutely failed to revive a "dead" bed. I have not been able to do it myself, and any instance of its having been done has never come under my observation. This may appear heresy anent the multitudinous writings to the 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 no second crop; it is merely a prolonged dribbling of the first crop. A bed, by reason of cold or dryness, may, as it were, stand still or partially stop bearing, and soon after it is remoistened, warmed, and otherwise submitted to congenial conditions, will display renewed energy; but this is no second crop; it is merely a spurt of the first crop caused by extra favorable cultural conditions. But to show how vaguely this question which is so much written about is regarded, let me quote from a letter to me by Mr. J. Barter, who grows 21,000 lbs of mushrooms a year for the London market: "You ask me, 'Do you ever get a second 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 six months, the weight of mushrooms is about the same. As there is in, say a ton of manure, only so much mushroom-producing power,