Mushrooms

by William Falconer

Brick spawn is always used. Some of those who make a specialty of mushrooms also make spawn for sale as well as for their own use; but the majority of the gardeners prefer to buy rather than make their own spawn.

When the heat has fallen to between 80° and 90° the ridges are spawned, the pieces inserted in three rows along each side, leaving about nine inches between the pieces. A dibber should not be used on any account. The spawn is put in tightly with the hand and the manure pressed down. It should be put in level with the face of the bed, so that the mold may just touch it when the bed is cased. In the event of cold or wet weather, just as soon as the beds are spawned a slight covering of rank litter is laid over them. After a few days this is removed and the beds are molded over with mold from ground to which manure has not been applied for some time. But the general market gardeners do not make this distinction; they use the earth from between the ridges, which has been manured regularly every year for a couple of hundred years or more. The mold is put on evenly with the spade and is about two inches thick at the base of the ridge and one inch thick at top, and well firmed by beating with the back of the spade; indeed, the ridges are now commonly watered through a water-pot rose, again beaten very firmly and the surface left smooth and even. This smooth surface readily sheds rain water, but I question if it has any advantage over a well-firmed unglazed surface. After molding the beds are covered with litter, that is, the rankest straw that had been shaken out of the manure, to a depth of four, six, eight, or ten inches, according to the state of the bed and weather; if the bed is inclined to be cool or if the weather is cold, thicken the covering.

Drenching or long drizzling rains are more injurious to the beds than is cold, and in order to ward them off old Russia mats and any other sort of cloth or carpet covering obtainable is laid over the litter on the beds and weighted down with poles, boards, stones, or anything else that is convenient. Do not disturb this covering for about four weeks, and then on a dry day strip it off and shake up the litter loosely so as to dry it. If there is any white mold on the surface of the soil take a handful of straw and rub it off. If the bed is rather cold put a layer of clean, dry hay next the bed, and on top of this replace the littery covering.

Fig. 27. The Covered Ridges.

The first beds are made in August, and one or more every month after till March, just as time, convenience and material permit. Summer beds are not attempted unless in exceptional cases. The bulk of the beds are generally put in in September and October. In early fall, also in spring, beds yield mushrooms in about six weeks after spawning; in winter they take eight or nine weeks or more, much depending on the weather.

In cold weather the mushrooms are gathered at noon-day; if the weather is windy and it is possible to postpone gathering for another day this is done, as the litter can not be replaced satisfactorily in windy weather. In gathering the mushrooms one man carefully pulls the straw down from the top of the bed, rolling it toward him; another gathers the mushrooms (pulling them out by the roots, never cutting them) into baskets, and a third man covers up the bed. In this way the three men go up one side of the ridge and down the other, and the work is done expeditiously and well, without exposing any part of the bed more than a minute or two at a time. It is necessary that the uncovering be done by rolling the straw down from the top of the ridge; if it were rolled up the covering on the other side of the ridge would be sure to slip down a little, and break off many small mushrooms. The mushrooms as gathered are of three grades; the large or wide-spread ones are called "broilers," the full-sized ones whose neck frill is merely broken about half an inch wide are "cups," and the small white ones whose frills are not broken at all are termed "buttons." All of these are kept separate. They are marketed in different ways, but the growers who make mushrooms a specialty assort and pack them in chip baskets, boxes, or otherwise, as the metropolitan and provincial markets demand or suggest. Mr. John F. Barter, writing to me from London, says: "As to punnetts, we use the same as for strawberries or peaches" (the abundance of peaches we have in America is unknown over there), "they hold just one pound. But it is getting more general now to have little boxes made to hold say three to five pounds each; these are better for packing in larger cases for long journeys."

The first cutting is a light one. After this the bed is cut twice a week for three weeks in mild weather, or once a week in inclement weather. The last two or three pickings are thin and only secured once a week. Altogether ten or eleven good pickings are gathered from each bed.

I never knew of a single instance in which any attempt was made to renovate an old or worn-out bed. But when the beds become so dry as to need watering a small handful of salt is dissolved in a large pailful of water and with this solution the beds are freely watered over the straw covering, but never, to my knowledge, under it.