A too dry atmosphere can be remedied by sprinkling the floors, walls, or litter coverings on the beds with water, not heavily or copiously, but gently and only enough to wet the surfaces; better moisten in this way frequently than drench the place at any one time. But I very much dislike sprinkling the beds in order to moisten the atmosphere. An experienced man can tell in a moment whether or not the atmosphere of the mushroom house is too dry. The air in the mushroom house should always feel moist, at the same time not raw or chilly, and the floor and wall surfaces should present a slow tendency to dry up, and the earth on the beds should retain its dark, moist appearance. The least tendency to dryness should at once be relieved by damping the wall and floor surfaces.
In houses heated by smoke flues, or still more by ordinary stoves and sheet iron pipes, it may be necessary to dampen the floors and walls once or several times a day to maintain a sufficiently moist atmosphere, but where hot water pipes are used and the houses are tight enough to require but little artificial heat, such frequent sprinkling will not be necessary. In the case of beds in unheated structures the ordinary atmosphere is generally moist enough.
Manure Steam for Moistening the Atmosphere.—The late James Barnes, of England, a grand old gardener, writing in the London Garden, Vol. III, page 486, describes his method of growing mushrooms sixty years ago, and says: "In winter a nice moist heat was maintained by placing hot stable manure inside, and often turning it over." Mr. John G. Gardner, of Jobstown, N. J., is one of Mr. Barnes's old pupils and a most successful mushroom grower, and he now practices this same method of moistening the atmosphere by hot manure steam. See [page 21.]
In damping the floors of the mushroom house, as well as the beds, I use a medium-sized watering pot and fine rose; but in sprinkling the walls and other parts not readily accessible by the watering pot I use a common garden syringe.
CHAPTER XVII.
GATHERING AND MARKETING MUSHROOMS.
This is an important point in the cultivation of this esculent, and should be attended to with painstaking discretion.
When mushrooms are fit to pick depends upon several conditions; for instance, whether for market or for home use, and if for the latter, whether they are wanted for soups or stews. For fresh and attractive appearance and best appreciation in the market, pick them when they are plump and fresh and just before the frill connecting the cap with the stem breaks apart. The French mushrooms should always be gathered before the frill bursts; the English mushrooms also look best when gathered at this time, but they are admissible if gathered when the frill begins to burst and before the cap has opened out flat. If the mushrooms display a tendency to produce long stems pick them somewhat earlier, soon enough to get them with short shanks, for long stems are disliked in market; so, too, are dark or discolored or old mushrooms of any sort. Sometimes we may not have enough mushrooms ready at one gathering to make it worth while sending them to market, and are tempted to let them stay ungathered until to-morrow, when they have grown larger and many more shall have grown big enough to gather. This should never be done. It will give an unfavored, unequal lot, some big, some little, some old, some young. Far better pick every one the moment it is ready to gather, and keep all safe in a cool place and covered until some more are ready for use, and in this way have a uniform appearing lot of young produce.
Mushrooms for soups should always be gathered before they burst their gills; indeed, they are mostly gathered when in a button state; that is, when they are about the size of marbles. In this condition, when cooked, they retain their white appearance and do not discolor the soup. Immature mushrooms are deficient in flavor.
For home use, for baking, stewing, broiling, or for cooking in any way in which the tenderness of the flesh and the delicious aroma of the mushrooms are desirable in their finest condition, let the mushrooms attain their full size and burst their frills, as seen in Fig. 24, and gather them before the caps open out flat, or the gills lose any of their bright pink color. If you let them get old enough for the gills to turn brown before gathering, the mushrooms will become leathery in texture, and lose in flavor and darken sadly in cooking.