Part 1 (1/2)

Mushroom Culture.

by W. Robinson.

PREFACE.

MY reasons for writing this book are: First, that Mushroom Culture is but little practised in this country compared to the extent to which it ought to be, considering the abundance of the necessary materials in all parts of these islands, both in town and country, and the high estimation in which the Mushroom is held. I now refer to ordinary Mushroom Culture as practised in our best private gardens. I believe it possible and desirable to extend this, the only phase of the Culture that can be called popular, in a tenfold degree, and that every place in which a gardener and horses are kept should be abundantly supplied with Mushrooms throughout the greater part of the year. Secondly, that although Mushroom Culture as usually practised is perfectly well known to good cultivators, a simpler and fuller account of it than has yet appeared in any English book on the subject is desirable for the unpractised amateur and cultivator. Thirdly, that Mushroom Culture is at present confined to a too narrow groove; and a belief that the general gardening public should have a broad and clear idea of the several ways in which they may procure abundance of excellent Mushrooms with very trifling expense. Even many of the best private growers never think of it except as ill.u.s.trated on their comparatively small beds in small houses. I believe that if the knowledge of how easily and in how many ways they may be grown, apart from the usual mode, were sufficiently spread, it would lead to the production of many times our present supply. Fourthly, a desire to introduce to this and other countries the system of Mushroom Culture on a very large scale carried on in caverns beneath the environs of Paris, which caverns I visited in 1868.

To these reasons I might add a wish to call attention to the waste of money for Mushroom-sp.a.w.n that now occurs in nearly every garden. There is not the slightest necessity for this. In every garden where Mushrooms are grown abundance of sp.a.w.n may be made. Mr. W. P. AYRES writes lately to tell me that in a great midland garden where the sp.a.w.n bill used to amount to 18_l._ or 19_l._ a year, by saving the sp.a.w.n as the Parisian growers do, all expense for this article is abolished.

I do not attempt to praise or even duly weigh the merits of the Mushroom--that could only be adequately done by the immortal BRILLAT-SAVARIN. He, however, seems to have somewhat neglected this most precious of _legumes_. None but his serious soul could have approached the subject with the necessary solemnity. n.o.body but he who first saw the deep dangers of hurried, thoughtless, and irreverent feeding, could have done justice to its exquisite flavour when in the best condition, or could have explained how deliciously it combined the virtues of herb and flesh, unspeakably superior to either. Let us, in pa.s.sing, quote one of his aphorisms, contributed to form the _base eternelle a la science_: ”_La decouverte d'un mets nouveau fait plus pour le bonheur du genre humain que la decouverte d'une etoile!_”

Now, I do not hesitate to say that the introduction of the Mushroom into our domestic economy in as great a degree as we have it in our power to produce it, would practically be the addition of a new agent in our _cuisine_, second to none for its delicacy, and unsurpa.s.sed for utility.

It is true the Mushroom is plentiful in its season, but it is with us, at all seasons when it is not to be gathered in the open air, a luxury to numbers of owners of gardens who have means to grow it. As for the much larger cla.s.s who ought to be supplied from our markets, they seldom see or taste a Mushroom except when these occur in profusion in our fields, though every cart of stable-manure produced in this great horse-keeping country may, on its way towards decomposition and replenis.h.i.+ng the earth, be made a nidus for furnis.h.i.+ng many dishes of them.

The ill.u.s.trations showing the cave-culture of mushrooms are from my ”Parks, Promenades, and Gardens of Paris.” And the frontispiece is after two large cuts of the mushroom caves of Paris, which appeared in the _Ill.u.s.trated London News_ some time after the appearance of my work. The ill.u.s.trations of edible fungi are by Mr. WORTHINGTON G. SMITH, who knows and draws these interesting subjects so thoroughly well; and the other figures are by Mr. HODGKIN.

WHERE MUSHROOMS MAY BE GROWN.

THE places in which mushrooms can be grown may be roughly grouped as follows:--1. In the mushroom-house proper. 2. In sheds, cellars, out-houses, stables, railway-arches, &c. 3. In deep caves, like those near Paris, described further on. 4. In the open air, in gardens or fields, on prepared beds. 5. In gardens, among various crops, without any preparation beyond inserting the sp.a.w.n. 6. In pastures where the mushroom is not already established.

To these I might add another group, ill.u.s.trated by the case of a Belgian cook who grew a dish of mushrooms in a pair of old wooden shoes; but practically we can treat of nearly every possible mode of growing the mushroom under the above headings.

CHAPTER I.

MUSHROOM CULTURE IN THE MUSHROOM-HOUSE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1. Mushroom-house at back of hothouses.]

CULTURE in the mushroom-house being the most practised, and, on the whole, the most important phase of the subject, we will first treat of it. And first of the mushroom-house itself. Its construction is very simple: the conditions to be obtained are equable temperature, secured by thick or hollow walls and by a double roof. Figure 1 shows a house designed for me by Mr. Ormson, the well-known horticultural builder.

It is situated at the back of the hothouses, where a flow and return pipe can be run through for artificial heat. The shelves for making the beds upon are of slate 1 in. thick, or of stone 2 in. thick, built into the walls, and into brick piers built in cement. Upright slates, to slide in grooves, are placed along the front of the shelves to keep the beds in.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2. Ground-plan of preceding.]

The floor may be of paving tiles, or bricks, laid on concrete: a skylight or two may be fixed in the roof, for the purpose of admitting a little light, and air when necessary. The engraving (fig. 2), shows a house of this description, 12 feet wide by 20 feet long, inside measure, but, of course, the length may be extended as circ.u.mstances may require.

As it is of importance in mushroom-growing that the air of the house should be kept moderately moist, the underside of a slate or tile roof should be lathed and plastered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 3. View of unheated mushroom-house.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 4. Section of preceding figure.]

Figure 3 represents a mushroom-house suitable for people of small means, or those who cannot adopt plan No. 1. It is designed with a view to growing mushrooms during the greater part of the year, without the aid of artificial heat. To this end it is constructed in such a way as not to be affected by changes of the external temperature, as will be seen by the engraving. The walls are hollow, and banked round with the soil excavated from the interior. The roof is thatched with reeds, and the ends stud-work, lined inside with boards, and outside with split larch poles: the cavity to be filled with sawdust or cut straw; a small diamond-shaped ventilator, hung on pivots, to be fixed in each end. The floor may be of concrete, or burnt clay well rammed; and the beds are retained in their place by boards nailed to good oak posts. Care should be taken to put in efficient drains, so that no stagnant damp may exist about the building.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 5. Section of mushroom-house at Frogmore.]