Fig. 20. View in mushroom-cave.
A moment more and we are in an open space, a sort of chamber, say 20 feet by 12, and here the little beds are arranged in parallel lines, an alley of not more than four inches separating them, the sides of the beds being literally blistered all over with mushrooms. There is oneexception; on half of the bed and for about ten feet along, the little mushrooms have appeared and are appearing, but they never get larger than a pea, and shrivel away, “bewitched” as it were. At least such was the inference drawn from the cultivator’s expression about it. He gravely attributed it to a ridiculously superstitious cause. Frequently the mushrooms grow in bunches or “rocks,” as they are called, and in such cases those that compose the little mass are lifted all together.
The sides of one bed here had been almost stripped by the taking away of such bunches, and it is worthy of note that they are not only taken out, root and all, when being gathered, but the very spot in which they grew is scraped out, so as to get rid of every trace of the old bunch, and the space is covered with a little earth from the bottom of the heap. It is the habit to do this in every case, and when the gatherer leaves a small hole from which he has pulled even a solitary mushroom, he fills it with some of the white earth from the base, no doubt intending to gather other mushrooms from the same spots before many weeks are over. The “buttons” look very white, and are apparently of prime quality. The absence of all littery coverings and dust, and the daily gatherings, secure them in what we may term perfect condition. I visited this cave on the 6th of July, 1868, and doubt very much if at that season a more remarkable crop of mushrooms could be anywhere found than was presentedin this subterranean chamber—a mere speck in the space devoted to mushroom culture by one individual.
When I state that there are six or seven miles run of mushroom-beds in the ramifications of this cave, and that the owner is but one of a large class who devote themselves to mushroom culture, the reader will have some opportunity of judging of the extent to which it is carried on about Paris. These caves not only supply the wants of the city above them, but those of England and other countries also, large quantities of preserved mushrooms being exported, one house alone sending to our own country no less than 14,000 boxes annually. There were some traces of the teeth of rats on the produce, and it need not be said that these enemies are not agreeable in such a place; but they did not seem to have committed any serious ravages, and are probably only casual visitors, who take the first opportunity of obtaining more varied food than is afforded them by these caves. To traverse the passages any further is needless—there is nothing to be seen but a repetition of the culture above described, every available inch of the cave being occupied. We again find our way to the bottom of the shaft, carefully mount the rather shaky pole one at a time, and again stand in the hot sun in the midst of the ripe wheat.
In traversing the fields two things relating to mushroom culture are to be observed—heaps of white grittyearth, sifted from thedébrisof the white stone, and large heaps of stable manure accumulated for mushroom growing, and undergoing preparation for it. That preparation is different from what we are accustomed to give it. It is ordinary stable manure, or very short stuff, not droppings, and is thrown into heaps four or five feet high, and perhaps thirty feet wide. The men were employed turning this over, the mass being afterwards stamped down with their feet, a water-cart and pots being used to thoroughly water the manure where it is dry and whitish.
As many will feel an interest in the cave culture of the mushroom, and perhaps wish to see it for themselves, I may state that it is difficult to obtain permission to visit the caves, and many persons would not like the look of the “ladder” which affords an entrance. Even with a well-known Parisian horticulturist I had some difficulty in entering them. I was informed that one champignonniste in the same neighbourhood demands the exorbitant price of twenty francs for a visit to his cave. As the visit is the work of some little time, no visitor should put the cultivators to this trouble without offering some slight recompense—say not less than five francs. The above cave is but a sample of many in the immediate neighbourhood of Paris.
We will next visit a mushroom-cave of another type at some little distance from that city. It is situatednear Frépillon, Méry-sur-Oise—a place which may be reached in an hour or so by the Chemin de fer du Nord, passing by Enghien, the valley of Montmorency and Pontoise, and alighting at Auvers. There are vast quarries in the neighbourhood, both for building-stone and the plaster so largely used in Paris. The materials are not quarried in the ordinary way by opening up the ground, nor by the method employed at Montrouge and elsewhere in the suburbs of Paris, but so that the interior of the earth looks like a vast gloomy cathedral. In 1867 the mushroom culture was in full force at Méry, and as many as 3000 lbs. a day were sometimes sent from thence to the Paris market; but the mushroom is a thing of peculiar taste, and these quarries are now empty—cleaned out and left to rest. After a time the great quarries seem to become tired of their occupants, or the mushrooms dislike the air; the quarries are then well cleaned out, the very soil where the beds rested being scraped away, and the place left to recruit itself for a year or two. In 1867 M. Renaudot had the extraordinary length of over twenty-one miles of mushroom-beds in one great cave at Méry; last year there were sixteen miles in a cave at Frépillon. This is a clean, lonely village, just touching on the gigantic cemetery which M. Haussmann projected.
Fig. 21. Entrance to large subterranean quarry.
The distant view of the entrance to the quarries has much the appearance of an English chalk-pit. Butthere is a great rude arch cut into the rock, and into this we enter, meeting presently a waggon coming forth with a load of stones, the waggoner with lamp in hand. To the visitor who has seen the mushroom caves near Paris, where it is sometimes necessary to stoop very low to avoid knocking one’s head against the roof rocks, the surprise is great on getting a little way in. At least it is so soon as one can see; the darkness is so profoundthat a few candles or lamps merely make it more visible. The tunnel we traverse is nearly regularly arched, masonry being used here and there, so as to render the supportsecure and somewhat symmetrical, the arches being flat at the top for six feet or so, and about twenty-five feet high; sometimes five feet higher.
Fig. 22.Plan of large subterranean quarry at Fortes Terres, Frépillon.S,S,S, represent the plan of the bases of the huge supporting pillars, and the dotted lines their union with the roof.D,C, shows the line of the section shown in the following cut, andP, place for preparing the plaster. Sept. 1868.
Fig. 23. Section following the lineC,D, inFig. 22.
Presently we turn to the right, and a scene like a vast subterranean rock temple presents itself. At one end are several of us with lamps, admiring the young mushrooms budding all over the rows of beds, which, serpent-like, are long and slim, and coil away into the darkness. At about 150 feet distance there is a group of three men and a boy, each with a lamp, again dispelling the darkness from the mushroom beds, and occupied in placing small quantities of a sort of white clayey sand in the spots whence gatherings have been made a few hours previously. From both sides of this gloomy avenue the dark openings of others depart at short intervals, and the floor of all is covered with mushroom-beds, sometimes running along the passages, sometimes across them. These beds areabout twenty-two inches high and as much in diameter, and are covered with silver sand and a sort of white putty-like clay in about equal proportions. Running along in parallel lines, and disappearing from view in the darkness, one knows not what to compare them to, unless it be to barked pine trees in the hold of a ship.
Everywhere on the surface of these little beds small mushrooms were peering forth in quantity; as the beds are regularly gathered from every day, no very large ones are seen. They are preferred when about the size of a chestnut, and are removed root and branch, a small portion of finely sifted earth being placed in each hole, so as to level the bed as in the caves at Montrouge. If the old superstition that a mushroom never grows after being seen by human eyes were true, the trade of a champignonniste would never answer here, as the little budding individuals come within view every day during the gathering and earthing operations. The most perfect cleanliness is observed everywhere in the neighbourhood of these beds, and the whole surface of each avenue is covered by them, leaving passages of ten inches or a foot between the beds. At the time of my visit (Sept. 29, 1868) the crops of the cultivator were reduced to their lowest ebb, and yet about 400 lbs. per day were sent to market. The average daily quantity from this cave is about 880 lbs., and sometimes that is nearly doubled.
In some parts of the cave the work of ripping out thestone by powder and simple machinery continually goes on. The arches follow the veining of the stone, so to speak; their lower parts are of hard stone, the upper ones of soft, except the very top, which is again hard. There is but a slight crust of stone above the apex of each arch, and above that the earth and trees.
It may be supposed that the profits from such an extensive culture are great; and so they are, but the expense is great also. The proprietor informed me that culture on a more limited scale than he pursued last year at Méry gave the best return in proportion to expense, the care and supervision required by so many miles of beds being too great.
Fig. 24. Extracting the stone in subterranean quarries.
All the manure employed is brought from Paris by rail, as the place is twenty-five miles from that city by road. In the first place, so much per month is paid in Paris for the manure of each horse; then it has to be carted to the railway station and loaded in the waggons; next it is brought to the station of Auvers, and afterwards carted a couple of miles to the quarries, paying a toll for a bridge over the Oise on the way. That surely is difficulty enough for a cultivator to begin with! Then it is placed in great flat heaps a yard deep by about thirty long and ten wide, not far removed from the mouth of the cave, and here it is prepared, turned over and well mixed three times, and as a rule watered twice. About five or six weeks are occupied in the preparation, long manure requiring more time thanshort. The watering is not usually done regularly over the mass, but chiefly where it is dry and overheated. Every day manure is brought from Paris; every day new beds are made and old ones cleared out—the spent manure being used for garden purposes, particularly in surfacing or mulching, so as to prevent over-radiation from the ground in summer. The chief advantage the cultivator here has is the facility of taking his manure or anything else in or outin carts, as easily as if the beds were made in the open air. Near Paris, on the contrary, everything has to be sent up and down through shafts like those of an old well, and the men have to creep up and down a rough pole like mice. Many men are employed in the culture, the daily examination of sixteen miles of beds being a considerable item in itself. Here and there a barrier in the form of straw nailed between laths may be seen blocking up the great arch to a height of six feet or so. This is to prevent currents of air wandering about through the vast passages.
The mode of preparing the spawn here is entirely different to ours. They prefer virgin spawn—that is to say, spawn found naturally in a heap of manure. But as this material cannot be obtained in sufficient quantity to meet the wants of such extensive growers, they put a small portion of it into a mushroom-bed to spread, and instead of allowing this bed to produce mushrooms, it is all used as spawn, and is valued more than any other. Of course abundance of spawn occurs in the old beds, but it is never used directly. It is, however, frequently employed to spawn a small bed when virgin spawn cannot be obtained. In this case the small bed devoted to the propagation of spawn is placed in the open air, and covered with straw, and as soon as it is permeated with the spawn it is carried into the caves and used. As the making and spawning of beds is a process continually going on, a bed of this sort must be ready at all times. It is never made into bricksas with us, but simply spread through short, partly-decomposed, manure.[A]
[A]Mr. Speed, superintendent of the gardens at Chatsworth, has recently prepared his own spawn, as described onp. 73, and with perfect success.
[A]Mr. Speed, superintendent of the gardens at Chatsworth, has recently prepared his own spawn, as described onp. 73, and with perfect success.
I was informed that coal-mines are not adapted for growing mushrooms, and the smallest particle of iron in the beds of manure is avoided by the spawn, a circle around it remaining inert. It is said to be the same with coal. If an evil-disposed workman wishes to injure his employer, he has only to slip along by the beds with a pocketful of rusty old nails, and insert one here and there.
Fig. 25. View in old subterranean quarries devoted to mushroom culture, and in the occupation of M. Renaudot. Sept. 29, 1868.
The beds remain in good bearing generally about two months, but sometimes last twice and three times as long. A useful contrivance for facilitating the watering of thebeds has lately been invented; it consists of a portable water-cistern to be strapped to the back and fitted with a rose and tubing, so that a workman may carry a larger quantity of water, and apply it more regularly and gently than with the old-fashioned watering-pots—while one hand is left free to carry the lamp. An iron frame has also been invented, in which the bed is first compressed and shaped, the frame being then reversed and the bed placed in position. Another invention for earthing the beds over as soon as the spawn has taken will soon be in operation if not already so. As on an average 2500 yards of beds are made every month, simple mechanical contrivances to facilitate the operation will prove of the greatest advantage to the cultivator.
In addition to the caves in the localities above alluded to there are other places near Paris where the culture is carried on—notably at Moulin de la Roche, Sous Bicêtre, near St. Germaine, and also at Bagneux. The equability of temperature in the caves renders the culture of the mushroom possible at all seasons; but the best crops are gathered in winter, and consequently that is the best time to see them. I, however, saw abundant crops in the hottest part of the very hot season of 1868. These mushroom caves are under Government supervision, and are regularly inspected like any other mines in which work is going on. As regards the depth at which this culture is practised, it usually variesfrom twenty to one hundred feet, sometimes reaching one hundred and fifty and one hundred and sixty feet from the surface of the earth. They are so large that sometimes people are lost in them. In one instance the proprietor of a large cave went astray, and it was three days before he was discovered, although soldiers and volunteers in abundance were sent down. Is it possible that in a great mining and excavating country like ours we cannot establish the same kind of industry?
CULTURE ON PREPARED BEDS IN THE OPEN AIR IN GARDENS AND FIELDS.
Mushroomsmay be grown with ease in the open air in gardens; and this is a phase of the culture with which gardeners are not by any means sufficiently conversant. In fact, mushroom-culture in the open air in private gardens may be said not to exist at present, so very rarely is it seen.
In a little pamphlet on mushroom-growing that has lately appeared I find it stated that mushrooms may be grown out of doors “in summer,” but nothing about them being grown in the open air in winter. The Paris growers never attempt their culture in summer: the London ones very rarely. It is in winter that their cultivation is carried on in full vigour in the open air. Abundant crops are grown in the open air by the market-gardeners of London and Paris. From their beds mushrooms are gathered in quantities in mid-winter as well as in autumn. The Paris market-gardener does not attempt the culture in mid-summer, and does not think it practicable; but in the hot summer of 1868, and in the midst of the heatsof July, I found about half an acre of ground at Brompton covered with mushroom-beds bearing well.
The followingillustrationis from a sketch taken in Nov. 1869, in market-garden fields, between Kensington and Brompton. The beds, about three and a half feet high and the same in width at the base, are covered with the long straw or litter taken from the stable manure. Over that is placed old bast mats, or any like materials, to keep the litter in its place, and throw off the rain; the mats being kept in place by tiles, bricks, old boards, or any like objects that may be at hand. This is well shown in my illustration.
Fig. 26. Mushroom-beds in market-gardens at Earl’s Court, Kensington. November, 1869.
The manure employed is that brought from the London stables, the longer litter being shaken out and put on one side to cover the beds. No care whatever is taken in the preparation of the manure; it is usually madeinto beds soon after it is brought home and before it is allowed to heat, and then the beds are made in the form of potato-pits and beaten very firm. The beds are spawned when at about a temperature of eighty degrees, the pieces of spawn being placed about a foot or so apart, and it is then immediately earthed, the ordinary soil being used, and the bed covered to a thickness of a couple of inches. The success attained by the market-gardeners of both London and Paris, with the ordinary soil of the place in which the beds may be made, well proves the absurdity of seeking for any particular kind of soil for covering mushroom-beds. Beds made in this way in the autumn and winter months, and covered with a thick layer of litter and mats, seldom require any watering. The culture is not usually attempted in summer; the heat acting upon the littery covering giving rise to insects which destroy the mushrooms; but with care their culture is quite practicable at that season; in proof of which I may say that during the last week of July, 1868, I saw them gathered freely in a market-garden just beside the Gloucester Road Station of the Metropolitan Railway, where by using a coating of litter about a foot thick, and over that a layer of mats, it was possible to procure them in good condition throughout the hottest summer within memory. There are many acres of ground covered with beds made thus in the market-gardens round London.
Fig. 27. Uncovered end of mushroom-bed in Paris market-garden. January, 1867.
We will next turn to the culture of the mushroom in the open air near Paris. In old times the market-gardeners there used to grow it amongst their ordinary crops with great profit, but since the champignonnistes cultivate it under no danger from cold in the caves, the market-gardeners, who used to raise it to a great extent in the open air, do so now in a less degree. They begin with the preparation of the manure, and collect that of the horse for a month or six weeks before they make the beds; this they prepare in some firm spot of the market-garden, and take from it all rubbish, particles of wood, and miscellaneous matters; for, say they, the spawn is not fond of these bodies. After sorting it thus, they place it in beds two feet thick, or a little more, pressing it with the fork. When this is done the mass or bed iswell stamped, then thoroughly watered, and finally again pressed down by stamping. It is left in this state for eight or ten days, by which time it has begun to ferment, after which the bed ought to be well turned over and re-made on the same place, care being taken to place the manure that was near the sides of the first-made bed towards the centre in the turning and re-making. The mass is now left for another ten days or so, at the end of which time the manure is about in proper condition for making the beds that are to bear the mushrooms. Little ridge-shaped beds—about twenty six inches wide and the same in height—are then formed in parallel lines at a distance of twenty inches one from the other.
In a market-garden they may stretch over a considerable extent, their length being determined by the wants of the grower. The beds once made of a firm, close-fitting texture, the manure soon begins to warm again, but does not become unwholesomely hot for the spread of the spawn. When the beds have been made some days, the cultivator spawns them, having of course ascertained beforehand that the heat is genial and suitable. Generally the spawn is inserted within a few inches of the base, and at about thirteen inches apart in the line. Some cultivators insert two lines, the second about seven inches above the first. In doing so, it would of course be well to make the holes for the spawn in an alternate manner. The spawn is inserted in flakes about the sizeof three fingers, and then the manure is closed in over, and pressed firmly around it. This done, the beds are covered with about six inches of clean litter. Ten or twelve days afterwards the growers visit the beds, to see if the spawn has taken well. When they see the white filaments spreading in the bed they know that the spawn has taken; if not, they take away the spawn they suppose to be bad and replace it with better. But, using good spawn, and being practised hands at the work, they rarely fail in this particular; and when the spawn is seen spreading well through the bed, then, and not before, they cover the beds with fresh sweet soil to the depth of about an inch or so. For cover, the little pathway between the beds is simply loosened up, and the rich soil of the market-garden applied equably, firmly, and smoothly with a shovel. With these open-air beds they succeed in getting mushrooms in winter. A covering of abundance of litter is put on immediately after the beds are earthed, and kept there as a protection. They have not long to wait till the beds are in full bearing, and when they are in that state it is thought better to examine and gather from them every second day, or even every day where there are many beds. And thus they grow excellent mushrooms, and in great quantity, all the further attention required being to renew the covering when it gets rotten, and an occasional watering in a very dry season.
Of course this kind of cultivation is perfectly practicable in private gardens—where, however, I have not yet seen it carried out. Where there is a mushroom-house or empty shed in which mushrooms may be grown, there would be less occasion to pursue it, but there are many places in which no such conveniences exist. In any case it is desirable that gardeners generally should know to what a large extent this phase of the culture is pursued round London and Paris, and how simply it is done. Instead of mats, it would be an improvement to cover the beds with tarpaulin or some other cheap material that would keep out the wet.
CULTURE IN GARDENS, ETC., WITH OTHER CROPS IN THE OPEN AIR.
Thisis a phase of culture which may be pursued to great advantage in every private garden, almost without cost and attention. The low ridge-like hotbeds, for example, made for both long and short prickly cucumbers, gourds, marrows, &c., are admirably suited for growing a crop of mushrooms under the leaves of the subjects for which they were made. If the spawn be inserted soon after the beds are made, or at any convenient time in early summer, the beds will come into bearing in due course. Perhaps they may do so when mushrooms are found abundantly in the fields; but there are thousands of persons possessing gardens who have no fields in which to cull mushrooms, and who would like to gather them fresh in summer or autumn, if they could not afford to grow them in any covered structure in winter. And this is but one way in which they may be grown with summer garden crops, as will appear from the following communication, by Mr. Ayres, to theField:—
“The finest crop and the best mushrooms I ever saw were grown in the open ground, and without any protection at all. I will tell you how it happened. Some years back I had the charge of the garden of a noted hunting establishment in Northamptonshire, one of the aids to success being that the manure of an average of nearly fifty highly-fed horses went to the garden, the owner remarking that, whatever other things I might run short of, there would be plenty of ‘muck.’ Well, the best of the hunters during the summer were soiled in loose boxes, principally under cover, and in these boxes the manure was allowed to accumulate until it began to grow too hot for the feet of the horses; then it was indispensable that it should be removed. About midsummer it so happened that nearly three acres of ground had been cleared of the spring crop, spinach, early peas, beans, &c., and I had determined to devote the whole plot to winter brassicas, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, &c. The ground was brashy and very poor, and consequently I determined to clear the boxes and put the whole of the manure upon it. It was carted away so rich in ammonia that the men who loaded it shed tears, not from sentiment, but from compulsion; and when the manure was spread upon the surface it was nothing less than a foot thick—so thick, that the proprietor said it was impossible for it to be dug into the ground. However, clearing a trench at one end of thepiece, thirty inches wide and nearly a foot deep, the subsoil was broken up with strong steel forks, and upon that the dung covering the next strip was placed, and covered with the surface soil of the next trench; and so the work proceeded until the manure was put out of sight. I may remark that the dung, especially that around the walls, contained evidence of being strongly impregnated with mushroom spawn, though this was not regarded as being likely to produce a crop of the esculent. A soaking rain falling, the ground was immediately planted with brassicas, which grew as if they could not help growing—and in fact they could not.
“We had not planted for mushrooms, nor were mushrooms expected; but, walking round one morning early in September, a bunch of splendid fellows presented themselves, so large and thick and solid, that when I took them in for breakfast mychef de cuisineand ‘better half’ had grave doubts as to whether they were ‘the real thing.’ However, they were eaten, and the present writing is a proof that they did not poison me. Returning to the plot, I found the bunch gathered was not a solitary one—on the contrary, the ground was literally paved with mushrooms, many of them so large that bushels were gathered for ketchup within a few hours; while the retainers of a large establishment, down to the lowest labourer, were in a fortnight positively sick of them, and cartloads rotted upon the ground.
“The evidence of this unexpected success demonstrated two things—first, that if the ground is freely manured withfreshdung from well-fed horses, mushrooms are almost sure to be produced; and, secondly, that the more the ground is covered with the foliage of plants, the more certain will be the crop. Thus we found more mushrooms under savoys and broccoli than under Brussels sprouts—the former no doubt protecting the crop from heavy drenches of rain, which we know are very injurious to the mushroom crop. Since this example of mushroom-growing turned up, nearly fifteen years ago, I have frequently concentrated the fresh manure under a row of savoys or broccoli, throwing in at the same time a dust of mushroom spawn or the dung of a spent mushroom bed; and, except in very wet seasons, I have rarely failed to have a fine supply during the months of September and October. One point of success I believe to be essentially necessary, and that is, that water shall have a free passage through the ground at all times; hence the necessity of trenching the ground, if you expect mushrooms as well as brassicas.”
Even in gardens where mushrooms are well grown in enclosed structures such results in early autumn will often be desirable; while in numbers of places where there are few or no opportunities of gathering them in abundance under other circumstances, crops in the garden will be very welcome. Therefore utilise the old mushroom-beds!
MUSHROOM CULTURE IN PASTURES, ETC.
Notwithstandingthe extreme abundance of the common mushroom in the meadows and pastures of the British islands, and probably in similar positions all the world over, it is scarce in many situations, and, it may be, not a few persons would be willing to make it of more frequent occurrence in their fields. There is an opinion not uncommon that this cannot be done; that the mushroom is, to a great extent, a creature of chance, and that it cannot be cultivated. This is not a philosophical notion: there can be no doubt that the mushroom has to abide the results of the struggle for life as well as any other species of plant. Considering that we have taken the spawn from the fields and cultivated it with great success in all sorts of positions, none of which it could ever inhabit naturally, it is absurd to suppose that we cannot induce it to grow in positions exactly similar to its native habitat. Found in open, sunny meadows and pastures, and avoiding the shade of trees, it is grown, as we have seen, in dark and deep mines; yet people supposeit cannot be grown in those pastures in which it happens not to be found. It is erroneously inferred that there is something in its constitution or habit which causes it to occur in certain spots exclusively; but as well might we say this of any other plant. We know well that hundreds of native plants are hardy enough to grow almost anywhere, yet how many of them are but locally distributed and rare! Again, many plants are weeds in one district and unknown in another, perhaps, neighbouring one.
As the Rev. M. J. Berkeley remarks:—“It is almost useless to advert to the notion, though a very common one, which would regard these productions as the creatures of chance or of a happy concurrence of circumstances favourable to their growth from inorganic elements. It is true they often occur in unexpected situations, and from their extreme rapidity of development seem as if they could not have originated from anything like seed. But, as accurate inquiry has now thrown much light on the mystery in which the origin of intestinal worms was lately involved, so the phenomena which attend the growth of fungi are gradually receiving light, and they are found to follow essentially the same laws as more perfect vegetables.” It is, in fact, quite fair to conclude that mushrooms, like most other plants, occupy but a small space in the vast expanse of soil and site which are naturally adaptedfor their growth. I read in a gardening journal that “it is impossible to command a crop of out-door mushrooms.” I am positive that it can be done with almost as much certainty as any other crop, provided we take into consideration certain conditions. Of course, we must remember its natural wants; the more we do so, the more certain of success we may be. We know that it grows most abundantly in rich, upland pastures where water does not lie, associated with the meadow foxtail, meadow and hard fescue and cock’s-foot grasses, clovers, cowslips, daisies, yarrow, &c., and also with the thistles (Cnicus lanceolatusandC. arvensis), and other plants fond of similar soils. We know that it is rarely found where the marsh plume-thistle (Cnicus palustris), tufted hair-grass, and other marsh grasses and plants abound, and from the presence or absence of these plants we may easily make up our minds as to the positions that suit it best. Now, it has long since been proved in gardens that it is quite possible to cultivate plants to a much higher degree of perfection than they ever attain in a wild state, under conditions entirely different, and it is not improbable that we should be able to grow the common mushroom in soils and positions far removed from those in which it naturally occurs. But there is no occasion for anything of the kind. It loves well-drained and dry pastures and meadows, and is not the country covered with such?
After selecting the position in which we wish to propagate mushrooms, and no moderately dry pastureland need be without them, the next thing to consider is the providing of the spawn. Hitherto this has probably been the great difficulty. When nearly 20l.worth of mushroom spawn was annually used in the mushroom-houses of a large garden, the expense necessary to spawn a large pasture might well alarm the richest of mushroom-loving landholders; but there is not the slightest occasion for purchasing the spawn for this purpose. Every farmer and country gentleman can make it as easily as, or more easily than, the spawn-manufacturer, without any expense or inconvenience, the essential thing being a quantity of rather short stable-manure.
Where this is gathered in large heaps it will be easy to obtain the requisite materials at once. Where it is not so, a few loads of stable manure unmixed with long straw may be thrown together in the open air and prepared for the purpose. There is no occasion to place it in a shed of any kind, though if there be one at hand so much the better. If prepared in the open air it should be on a dry place; the materials should be subjected to exactly the same preparation as when used for making a mushroom-bed, before described. They should be made into a potato-pit-shaped bed, and spawned in the usual manner. For this spawning it is of course necessary to obtain a little spawn, whether home-made or bought from the seedsman,or found in what the French call “a virgin condition” in the dunghill. In any case it will not be found difficult to spawn one or more beds in this way, particularly as there is nothing to prevent people drying as much home-made spawn at one time as will suffice for a year or more. The spawn should be allowed to run through this bed, which should be covered with a slight sprinkling of earth, and beaten pretty firm. When it has penetrated through the bed, it should, just before it arrives at a bearing condition, be ready to be used as spawn. The number of beds to be spawned in this way may be limited according to the extent of ground on which it is proposed to grow the mushrooms. This spawn may be inserted in the meadows in early summer, the most suitable time is in genial weather in May, and the spawn should be inserted in holes from six to ten feet apart.
The most expeditious and best way of inserting it is that termed T-planting, striking the spade in the line represented by the perpendicular of the T, and then in the horizontal one on the top, pressing the spade back when in the last position, so as to readily admit of the insertion of one or more pieces of spawn. The kind of spawn made as I have recommended usually falls into small pieces, more likely to impregnate the earth quickly than the stiff, brick-like pieces of nursery spawn. The ground, after the insertion of the spawn, should be pressed firm withthe foot. As to the depth at which the spawn should be deposited, it would be better not to put it at any given depth, but so that while one piece of a flake may be at a depth of six inches or nearly so, others may touch the very surface. This, it need hardly be pointed out, would allow of the spawn vegetating at the depth and temperature most congenial to it. It would be most desirable to spawn at slightly different times, and, if possible, with different samples of spawn: thus, for example, it would be well to use a mixture of old and dried spawn with that taken fresh from one of the beds alluded to. If this were not convenient, some part of the large bed of spawn might be laid by to dry, and used a week or two afterwards. Probably the most economical way of doing this on a large scale would be by employing a number of boys, guided by an experienced workman.
It is scarcely desirable to attempt the culture in kept lawns, as no matter how suitable these are for it, the appearance of a large crop of mushrooms would have anything but a tendency to beautify the carpet of turf, and would probably become offensive from their odour.
The preceding refers to the cultivation of mushrooms in pastures, meadows, &c. There is not the slightest reason why a similar course of culture would not succeed in fields amongst green crops. As large crops of mushrooms have been produced in gardens under broccoli, &c., there is no reason whatever why they might not begrown in the same manner under field-turnips, mangold-wurtzel, &c. The spawn which could be so easily prepared by any farmer, could be readily inserted in the sides of the drills in which these crops are usually grown, the slight elevation of which, by preserving the spawn from excessive wet, will favour its development, and it would take possession of, and impregnate the manure in the drill. In fact, prodigious quantities might be raised in this and similar ways, with but little trouble; and should the fields be afterwards laid down, as is not uncommonly the case, the pasture or meadow would probably become a regular mushroom-ground.
THE COMMON MUSHROOMS.
Thecommon meadow mushroom varies considerably, but, “common to all are a fleshypileus, which is sometimes smooth, sometimes scaly, in colour white, or of different shades of tawny, fuliginous, or brown;gillsfree, at first pallid, then flesh-coloured, then pink, next purple, at length tawny-black; thestemwhite, full, firm, varying in shape, furnished with a white persistent ring; thesporesbrown-black, and a volva which is veryfugacious.”—Badham’s Esculent Funguses of England.
Fig. 28.Agaricus campestris(the True Meadow Mushroom). Pastures, autumn; colour, white or pale brown; gills, salmon, at length black; diameter, 3 to 6 inches. The spores are magnified 700 diameters.
There is scarcely any one in England who does not feel himself competent to decide on the genuineness of a mushroom; its pink gills easily distinguish it from a kindred fungus,Ag. arvensis, the gills of which are of a flesh-coloured grey, and out of the pickings of ten thousand hands, a mistake is of rare occurrence; and yet no fungus presents itself under such a variety of forms, or such singular diversities of aspect! The inference is plain; less discrimination than that employed to distinguish this would enable anyone who should take the trouble to recogniseat a glance many of those esculent species, which every spring and autumn fill our plantations and pastures with plenteousness. Neither is this left to be a mere matter of inference; it is corroborated in a singular manner by what takes place at Rome; there, whilst many hundred baskets of what we call toadstools are carried home for the table, almost the only one condemned to be thrown into the Tiber, by the inspector of the fungus market, is our own mushroom; indeed, in such dread is this held in the Papal States, that no one knowinglywould touch it. “It is reckoned one of the fiercest imprecations,” writes Professor Sanguinetti, “amongst our lower orders, infamous for the horrible nature of their oaths, to pray that one may die of aPratiolo;” and although it has been some years registered among the esculent funguses of Milan and Pavia (on the authority of Vittadini), it has not yet found its way into those markets. Mr. Worthington G. Smith, in his “Mushrooms and Toad-stools,” qualifies this statement of Dr. Badham.
Agaricus campestrisis not generally appreciated in Italy, and indeed is seldom eaten, and never appears in the markets, for the simple reason that there would be no sale for it. There is an edict in existence ordering certain fungi to be thrown into the Tiber, but it is now, and has long been altogether effete; and whilst there is an abundance ofA. Cæsareus(avowedly the most delicious of all fungi) for the markets of Italy, it is not to be expected the consumption will be given up for another and little known species.
The Modes of Cooking this Species.—“The mushroom, having the same proximate principles as meat, requires, like meat, to be cooked before these become changed. TheAg. campestrismay be prepared in a great variety of ways: they give a fine flavour to soup, and greatly improve beef-tea; where arrowroot and weak broths are distasteful to the patient, the simple seasoningof a little ketchup will frequently form an agreeable change. Some roast them, basting with melted butter and white (French) wine sauce. In patties andvols-au-ventthey are equally excellent; in fricassees, as everybody knows, they are the important element of the dish. Roques recommends in all cases the removal of the gills before dressing, which though it secures a more elegant-lookingentremets, is only flattering the eye at the expense of the palate.”—Badham.
“Pileusfleshy, obtusely conico-campanulate, then expanded, at first floccose, then smooth, even, or rivulose;stemhollow, with a floccose pith;ringbroad, pendulous, double, the outer split in rays;gillsfree, wider in front, at first dirty white, then brown, tinged with pink.”—Berkeley’s Outlines of British Fungology.