Part 46 (1/2)

275. Artificial Mushroom Beds.

Mushrooms may be grown in pots, boxes, or hampers. Each box may be about three feet long, one and a half broad, and seven inches in depth. Let each box be half filled with manure in the form of fresh horse-dung from the stables, the fresher the better, but if wet, it should be allowed to dry for three or four days before it is put into the boxes. When the manure has been placed in the box it should be well beaten down. After the second or third day, if the manure has begun to generate heat, break each brick of mushroom sp.a.w.n (which may be obtained from any seedsman) into pieces about three inches square, then lay the pieces about four inches apart upon the surface of the manure in the box; here they are to lie for six days, when it will probably be found that the side of the sp.a.w.n next to the manure has begun to run in the manure below; then add one and a half inch more of fresh manure on the top of the sp.a.w.n in the box, and beat it down as formerly. In the course of a fortnight, when you find that the sp.a.w.n has run through the manure, the box will be ready to receive the mould on the top; this mould must be two and a half inches deep, well beaten down, and the surface made quite even. In the s.p.a.ce of five or six weeks the mushrooms will begin to come up; if the mould then seems dry, give it a gentle watering with lukewarm water. The box will continue to produce from six weeks to two months, if duly attended to by giving a little water when dry, for the mushrooms need neither _light_ nor _free air_. If cut as b.u.t.ton mushrooms each box will yield from twenty-four to forty-eight pints, according to the season and other circ.u.mstances. They may be kept in dry dark cellars, or any other places where the frost will not reach them. By preparing in succession of boxes, mushrooms may be had all the year through.--They may be grown without the manure, and be of a finer flavour. Take a little straw, and lay it carefully in the bottom of the mushroom box, about an inch thick, or rather more. Then take some of the sp.a.w.n bricks and break them down--each brick into about ten pieces, and lay the fragments on the straw, as close to each other as they will lie.

Cover them up with mould three and a half inches deep, and well pressed down. When the surface appears dry give a little tepid water, as directed for the mode of raising them described above, but this method needs about double the quant.i.ty of water that the former does, owing to having no moisture in the bottom, while the other has the manure. The mushrooms will begin to start in a month or five weeks, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, according to the heat of the place where the boxes are situated.

[SOME HOURS WE SHOULD FIND FOR THE PLEASURES OF THE MIND.]

276. Dwarf Plants.

The following method of producing miniature trees is taken from an article on this subject in 'Gardening Ill.u.s.trated'.

”Take an orange, and having cut a hole in the peel about the size of a s.h.i.+lling, take out the juice and pulp. Fill the skin thus emptied with some cocoa-nut fibre, fine moss, and charcoal, just stiffened with a little loam, and then put an acorn or a date stone, or the seed or kernel of any tree that it is proposed to obtain in a dwarfed form in this mixture, just about the centre of the hollow orange peel. Place the orange peel in a tumbler or vase in a window, and occasionally moisten the contents with a little water through the hole in the peel, and sprinkle the surface apparent through the hole with some fine woodashes. In due time the tree will push up its stem through the compost and the roots will push through the orange peel. The roots must then be cut off flush with the peel, and this process must be repeated at frequent intervals for about two years and a half. The stem of the tree will attain the height of four or five inches and then a.s.sume a stunted gnarled appearance, giving it the appearance of an old tree. When the ends of the roots are cut for the last time, the orange peel, which, curiously enough, does not rot, must be painted black and varnished.”

The writer of the article saw this process carried out by a Chinaman that he had in his service, and the trees thrived and presented a healthy appearance for eight years, when the Chinaman left his employ and took the trees with him. He tried the plan which has been described but failed, but he was successful with an acorn and a datestone which were planted each in a thumb-pot in a mixture of peat and loam. The dwarfing was effected by turning the plants out of the pots at intervals of six weeks and pinching off the ends of the roots that showed themselves behind the compost. This shows that the production of dwarf plants is chiefly due to a constant and systematic checking of the root growth.

277. To Clear Rose Trees from Blight.

Mix equal quant.i.ties of Sulphur and tobacco dust, and strew the mixture over the trees of a morning when the dew is on them. The insects will disappear in a few days. The trees should then be syringed with a decoction of elder leaves.

278. To prevent Mildew on all sorts of Trees.

The best preventive against mildew is to keep the plant subject to it occasionally syringed with a decoction of elder leaves, which will prevent the fungus growing on them.

279. Your Friend the Toad.

Toads are among the best friends the gardener has; for they live almost exclusively on the most destructive kinds of vermin. Unsightly, therefore, though they may be, they should on all accounts be encouraged; they should never be touched nor molested in any way; on the contrary, places of shelter should be made for them, to which they may retire from the burning heat of the sun. If you have none in your garden, it will be quite worth your while to search for them in your walks, and bring them home, taking care to handle them tenderly, for although they have neither the will nor the power to injure you, a very little rough treatment will injure them; no cuc.u.mber or melon frame should be without one or two.

280. Slugs and Snails

are great enemies to every kind of garden plant, whether flower or vegetable; they wander in the night to feed, and return at daylight to their haunts. In order to catch them lay cabbage leaves about the ground, especially on the beds which they frequent. Every morning examine these leaves, and you will find a great many taking refuge beneath, and these may be killed by sprinkling them with a little lime or salt. These minerals are very annoying to snails and slugs; a pinch of salt kills them, and they will not touch fresh lime. It is a common practice to sprinkle lime over young crops, and along the edges of beds, about rows of peas and beans, lettuces and other vegetables; but when it has been on the ground some days, or has been moistened by rain, it loses its strength.

[LET THE TICKING CLOCK GUIDE THE BOILING CROCK.]

281. Traps for Snails.

Snails are particularly fond of bran; if a little is spread on the ground, and covered over with a few cabbage-leaves or tiles, they will congregate under them in great numbers, and by examining them every morning, and destroying them, their numbers will be materially decreased.

282. Grubs.

Grubs on orchard trees, and gooseberry and currant bushes, will sometimes be sufficiently numerous to spoil a crop; but if a bonfire be made with dry sticks and weeds on the windward side of the orchard, so that the smoke may blow among the trees, you will destroy thousands; for the grubs have such an objection to smoke, that very little of it makes them roll themselves up and fall off: they must be swept up afterwards and destroyed.