“A short time back, attention was directed to the superior quality of French mushroom-spawn, and as a natural consequence several London seedsmen imported it for sale. Some months back I obtained possession of a stable, and, wishing to grow mushrooms in it, procured a few tons of horse manure, just as it came from the dung-pit of the hotel stables. It was very wet, and consequently when thrown together it heated violently. However, by frequent turning for a week or ten days this tendency was reduced, and then five beds were formed of it, adding one-fourth of perfectly dry soil from a cucumber-house. I say perfectly dry, because the soil had lain in the house for fifteen or eighteen months without receiving a drop of water, and therefore may almost be considered as thoroughly dry. Intimately mixed with the fermenting dung, it had the tendency that I desired—viz., subdued the excessive moisture, and, after the bed had been made up a week, brought it to the temperature necessary to receive the spawn.
“Having great faith in the good qualities of fresh loam from an old pasture for the production of mushrooms of superior quality, I had a quantity dried and warmed. I had a coat of this three inches thick laid over each bed, and then forked carefully in, taking care to mix the soil and dung as intimately as possible. Re-formed and left for a few days the beds attained the necessary warmth; then they were made quite firm, and were ready for spawning.
“For this purpose I had procured two boxes of the French spawn from Messrs. Barr and Sugden, of Covent Garden. It was light, loose, flaky, chaffy stuff, and so dry that I had some fear whether its vegetating power had not been dried out of it. But the spawn had been bought for experiment, and therefore the experiment must be carried out.
“Raking about two inches of the material from the surface of each bed, pieces of the flaky spawn were laid down, at about ten inches or a foot apart, all over the beds; the fine portions of the spawn were then scattered over the beds, patted down firmly with the back of a spade, and then the surface material was returned, and the whole made as firm as possible. In passing, it may not be out of place to remark that spawning in this manner must be guided, or rather governed, by the state of the material of the bed. If it is not sufficiently cooled, it will be safer to make holes in the usual manner for the spawn; but if in a fit state, then I think the broadcast spawning and earthing, as before described, is the best plan. The disturbed portion of the beds having regained its heat, and there being no fear of its overheating, the beds were immediately earthed two inches thick with fresh loam, beaten quite firm, and then covered with a thin layer of dry hay.
“Not liking to entrust my chance of mushrooms entirely to the new material, the French spawn, two beds were spawned at the same time and in the same manner with native spawn. Owing to the large size of the stable, and the unusually cold, piercing weather at the end of the year (1869), the beds lost so much heat that I had some misgivings whether they would not prove a failure; but finding, subsequently, that the spawn was working, I gave each bed (the surface being rather dry) a good syringing with water at the temperature of 80 deg., covered it with clean dry mats, and then returned the hay. The beds are now a sheet of the ‘pearl of the fields,’ some of the patches as large as a cheese-plate, and the whole in most promising condition—so promising that, with proper attention, I have no doubt they will yield a good supply of mushrooms for many months. To secure this continuous bearing, farmyard manure-water and salt, at proper times, should not be spared; while, as soon as the flush of the first crop is over, the beds may receive a thorough soaking of manure-water at a temperature of not less than 80 deg., be re-earthed with fresh soil, and covered down with mats and hay. In this manner we always get a second crop little inferior to the first one, and sometimes much superior.”
CHAPTER IV.
SPAWNING AND AFTER-TREATMENT.