PLATE V
Agaricus Campestris.
Cultivation of mushrooms
Doubtless a sufficient and satisfactory reason for the universal dignity which this species has acquired as "the mushroom" may be found in the fact that it is the only species prominently under cultivation, and almost the only one which is sure to respond to the artificial cultivation of its spawn in the so-called "mushroom bed." The "spawn" of the Campestris has thus become a mercantile commodity, duly advertised in the seedsmen's catalogues.
Mushroom "spawn" bed
This so-called spawn is in truth nothing but the mycelium, or subterranean vine of the mushroom (see [Plate 2]), taken from the beds in which the mushrooms have been grown, or in which the mycelium has been cultivated. The cultivator simply prepares a "bed" to receive it—duplicating as far as possible the soil conditions from which it was taken, whether from foreign cultivation or his old manure-bed or stable-yard—a rich, warm compost of loam and horse-manure, this latter ingredient being a most important consideration, as the fungus in its several varieties, notably the larger, Agaricus arvensis, known as the "horse-mushroom," has followed the track of the horse around the world. These natural conditions having been even approximately fulfilled, will, within two months, generally reward the cultivator with a crop of mushrooms, which, with the continued ramifications of the mycelium permeating the muck as the yeast fungus permeates the home-made loaf, will insure a continual succession of crops for weeks or months, to be renewed spontaneously, perhaps, the following season.
The present volume, having specific reference to fungi in their wild state, and the celebration of their esculent virtues, being thus essentially in antithesis to artificial culture, further consideration of the cultivation of the mushroom is omitted. The reader is referred to the volumes in my bibliographical list, Nos. 8 and 22, in which full instructions will be found.