Mushroom Culture: Its Extension and Improvement

logous to seed, while it really is what may be termed the vegetation of the plant, or something analogous to roots, stems, and leaves of ordinary plants,

ould cover a large space if spread out, and the spores are counted by myriads. We can see them clearly enough under the microscope-can see in what manner they are borne on and fixed to the gills; but of the history of their lives, from the time they fall from the surfaces on which they were born, till the

s, &c., and rarely or never in very moist or saturated materials. This spawn, sometimes termed "natural" in this country, and called by the French "virgin spawn," is the best that can be obtained, and should be used in preference wherever it can be found. To use it, all that has to be done is to divide the ma

n a dry place for years, and has been known to keep as long as fourteen years. It must not be supposed that it is only the hard bricks described further on that keep thus. The French spawn is in much looser and lighter material than that in which we usually find mycelium in a natural state, and it keeps quite as long as ours. To preserve spawn found in a natural state, nothin

rick mushr

e rest mould or loam. 3. Horsedung, cowdung, and loam in equal parts. These bricks are placed in some dry, airy place, and when half dry, a little bit of spawn about as big as a hazel nut, is placed in the centre of each; or sometimes, when the bricks are as wide as long, a particle is put near each corner, just inserted below the surface, and plastered over with the composition of which the bricks are made. When the bricks are nearly dry, they are placed on a hotbed about a foot thick, in a shed or dry place. On this the bricks are piled, or placed rather openly and loosely, and covered over with litter, so that the heat may circulate equably amongst them. The temperature should not rise more than a degree or

ll-track mu

ceding. It would seem to be simply spawn that has spread through the thoroughly amalgamated droppings of a mill-track. The materia

risian mush

it, the bed is broken up and used for spawning beds in the caves, or dried and preserved for sale. It is sold in small boxes, and is fit for insertion when pulled in rather thin pieces, about half the size of the open hand; but in separating it, it divides into many pieces, of all sizes, every particle of which should be used. The small particles should be strewn broadcast over the bed after the large

leaf-mould containing traces of spawn, and these formed into beds about a foot thick in the mushroom-house, and covered wit

the commencement, or to guard against one's own spawn proving bad. To secure good spawn, we have only to do as the French growers d

ed in addition to the fine crops the Parisian growers gather,

otel 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 fif

d 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 intima

was light, loose, flaky, chaffy stuff, and so dry that I had some fear whether its vegetating power had not been

, 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, th

g, 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. T