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

Flock does not affect all the mushrooms in a bed at any time, and I do not believe it spreads in the bed, or, to use the expression, becomes contagious. If one spot of mildew appears upon a cucumber, rose, or grape vine indoors, and is not checked, it soon becomes general all over the plant or plants, and if one spot of mold occurs in a propagating bed and is not checked at once it soon spreads over a large space and destroys every cutting or seedling within its reach, but this is not the case with flock in a mushroom bed. If one mushroom is affected with flock every mushroom produced from that piece of spawn is affected, but not one mushroom produced from the pieces of spawn inserted next to this one is affected by it; not even if the mycelium from the several lumps of spawn forms an interlacing web. If the flock is confined to the mushrooms produced from a certain bit of spawn some may ask, will the other pieces of spawn broken from the same brick produce flock-infested mushrooms? No. I have given this point particular attention, have kept the pieces of each brick close together, and where flock has appeared I have failed to find that the other pieces of spawn from that brick are more liable to produce flock-infested mushrooms than are the pieces of the 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 feet long and of two months' bearing one may get as few as five or as many as fifty flocky mushrooms; one or two may occur to-day, and we may not find another for a week or two, when we may get a whole clump of them, and so on. It is not the large number of them that makes them dangerous, for they never appear in quantity. They sometimes appear among the earliest mushrooms in the bed, but generally not until after the bed has been in bearing condition for a week or two.

What conditions are most favorable or unfavorable to the growth of this disease I do not know; but it is certainly not caused by debility in the mushroom itself, as the parasite attacks healthy, robust mushrooms and debilitated ones indiscriminately. This flocky condition is caused by one or more saprophytic and parasitic fungi of lowly origin, whose various parts are reduced to mere threads, simple or branched, and divided into tubular cells at intervals, or else they are long, continuous microscopic tubes without any partitions, except at those occasional points where a branch, destined to produce spores, is given off. Generally two or more species of these thread-fungi are present at the same time on the mushroom host, and by the multiplied crossing and interweaving of their threads and branches produce, through their great numbers, the whitish, felted mass of "flock"; while as individuals the threads are so minute as to be scarcely or not at all visible to the naked eye. Similar thread-fungi may often be found in the woods among damp leaves, under rotten logs, and on those porous fungi which project, shelf-like, from the trunks of trees. At present there is no way known for destroying the "flock," except to take up and destroy every clump of mushrooms attacked by it. Fortunately the disease is not very serious if proper precautions are observed; for, in our own cellars, where mushrooms have been grown year after year for the past eleven years, we get but few flocky mushrooms in any bed's bearing. The disease is not more common to-day than it was in any former year. But we give our cellars a thorough cleaning every summer.

Cleaning the Mushroom Houses.—After the season's cropping is finished the mushroom houses and cellars should be thoroughly cleaned. Clear out the 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 it out, broom down the walls and whatever boarding is left. Whitewash the walls with hot lime wash, and paint every bit of woodwork liberally with crude oil or kerosene. This is to destroy anguillulæ and other insect and fungus parasites. If you wish to use again the boards brought outside, broom them over and paint them copiously with kerosene. And if your cellar or house has a dirt floor, a heavy sprinkling of very caustic lime water all over it will do good in ridding it of vermin.

GROWING MUSHROOMS IN RIDGES OUT OF DOORS AROUND LONDON.

In the preface to Kitchen and Market Gardening (London) is the following:

"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 systematic observation of the best culture as it is in London market gardens." This is mentioned to indicate that the writer speaks on this subject from experience. And although it is now seventeen years since I became disconnected with the London market gardens, by revisiting them a few years ago, and by correspondence and the horticultural press, I have endeavored to keep informed of all changes of methods and improvements in culture as practiced there. At that time Steele, Bagley, Broadbent, Dancer, Pocock and Myatt were among the largest and best gardeners around London, and since then several of these grand old gentlemen have passed away and their fields have been cut up and built upon. At that time mushrooms were one of the general crops, as were snap beans or cauliflower, and in their season were planted as a matter of course. To-day they have become a specialty, and some gardeners devote their whole energy to mushroom-growing alone, and make from $2000 to $5000 a year clear profit from one acre of mushrooms, and that, too, from ridges in the open field! There is no other field crop that yields such a large profit. There they get twenty-four to forty-eight cents a pound for their fresh mushrooms, here we get fifty cents to a dollar a pound for ours. But as mushroom-growing there is confined to fall, winter and spring, those gardeners who restrict themselves to mushrooms only devote the summer months to making mushroom spawn for their own use, and also for sale.

Mr. John F. Barter, of Lancefield street, London, the king of London mushroom growers, writes me under date of Dec. 10, 1888: "I employ men for mushroom bed-making from August to March; then, in order to keep on the same staff, I get about 10,000 bushels of brick spawn made up for sale.... By the sale of spawn I make just half of my living." Now let us see: 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) the total is $16,000; at five cents a pound (supposed wholesale price) $8000, or at three and a half cents a pound (supposed manufacturer's price) $5600.

The manure is obtained from the city stables and hauled home by the gardeners on their return trips from market. The manure collected after midsummer is used for mushrooms, and an effort is made to save the very best horse manure for this purpose. When enough has accumulated for a bed the manure is turned and well shaken, removing only the rougher part of the straw, and thrown into a large pyramidal pile to heat; this shape is adopted as being better than the flat form for keeping out rain. In three or four days the manure is again turned, shaken out and piled up as 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 be ready 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 to protect it from cold winds. Although a great many mushroom ridges are made under the partial shade of apple and pear trees, I always preferred making them in the open ground. The land should be dry and of a slightly elevated or sloping nature, so that no pools of water can possibly collect on the surface. Having the ground cleared, leveled, and ready, mark it off into strips two feet wide and six feet wide alternately. The two feet wide space is for the mushroom bed, the six feet wide one for the space between the beds; but after the ridges are built, earthed over and covered with straw, they are almost six feet wide at the base. The common sizes of ridges are two feet wide by two feet high, and two and one-half feet wide by two and one-half feet high, and taper to six or eight inches wide at top.

The manure being ready and the site for the beds lined off, the manure is carted to the place and wheeled upon the beds. In making the bed shake out the manure well and evenly to cause it to hold together, tamp it with the back of the fork as you go along, and two or three times before the ridges are completed walk upon and tread the manure down solidly 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 the top to nearly the bottom with a small iron bar to let the heat off and prevent the inside of the bed from becoming too dry. Make them about nine inches apart all along the center of the bed. The old gardeners did not use the crowbar. They were very particular not to build their ridges before the chances of overheating were considered past; but notwithstanding all their care some of their beds would get overwarm, when, without a moment's hesitation, they tossed them over, part to the right and part to the left, and left the manure thus exposed for a day or 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 of mushrooms also make spawn for sale as well as for their own use; but the majority of the gardeners prefer to buy rather than make their own spawn.

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 nine inches 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 may just touch it when the bed is cased. In the event of cold or wet weather, just as soon as the beds are spawned a slight covering of rank litter is laid over them. After a few days this is removed and the beds are molded over with mold from ground to which manure has not been applied for some time. But the general market gardeners do not make this distinction; they use the earth from between the ridges, which has been manured regularly every year for a couple of hundred years or more. The mold is put on evenly with the spade and is about two inches thick at the base of the ridge and one inch thick at top, and well firmed by beating with the back of the spade; indeed, the ridges are now commonly watered through