Mushroom Culture: Its Extension and Improvement — John Shaqi
Mushroom Culture: Its Extension and ImprovementRobinson, W. (William)
Science
Mushroom Culture: Its Extension and Improvement
Robinson, W. (William)
Mushroom culture; Mushrooms
MUSHROOMS may be, and are, grown to perfection in many less ambitious
structures than the mushroom-house proper. Any species of outhouse will
do for the autumn and early winter crops. One of the best crops I have
ever seen was grown in a dry and unused coach-house. Mr. Robert Fish
grows all his crops in a long, low, rude thatched shed, open in
front--the beds flat, in a continuous line against a wall, and enclosed
by a low board. Mr. Cuthill, who wrote on mushrooms, and who used to
grow them very well, grew his in rude sheds placed against walls. It
matters not in the least if the shed be open or ventilated here and
there, especially for autumn crops, as I have seen admirable crops in
low outhouses searched by every gust, and not heated by flues. The beds
in these should always be covered with hay. Mushrooms may be grown in
cellars; but cellars being commonly under houses, they are not exactly
the places to which people like to convey the materials necessary for
the making of mushroom-beds. Where they occur away from a
dwelling-house, this objection will not hold good. In some cases it
might be obviated by making the beds in rough boxes, say 3½ ft. long
by 1½ ft. wide, and afterwards introducing them into the cellar.
Railway or other arches, or any dry and empty structures, may be used
for mushroom-growing.
“The construction,” says Mr. William Ingram, of Belvoir, in a letter to
the _Field_, “of efficient mushroom-houses is sufficiently understood by
most of our hothouse-builders and by gardeners; but the economical
adaptation of places which already exist is a matter which may with the
greatest advantage be discussed, as there are hundreds of persons about
whose establishments may be found outhouses, cellars, quarries, or
sheds, capable of conversion into mushroom-houses, who would be very
glad to be taught the method of growing mushrooms, and to have the
simple principles that should govern the construction of mushroom-houses
explained.
“There are few large farmsteads that are without an unconsidered place
which could be readily adapted for the purpose of growing mushrooms; and
farmers possess the material at hand, horse manure, which would not
suffer great deterioration if employed in first raising a crop of
mushrooms. Country brewing establishments have equal conveniences and
opportunities. By relating the means by which I have been for several
years able to raise large quantities of excellent mushrooms, in a place
originally but ill adapted for the purpose, I may induce some of those
persons who desire the luxury of what Soyer called ‘the Pearl of the
Fields,’ to turn their attention to the subject of their growth.
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