GROWING MUSHROOMS IN RIDGES OUT OF DOORS AROUND LONDON.
In the preface to _Kitchen and Market Gardening_ (London) is the
following:
"Mr. W. Falconer and Mr. C. W. Shaw made, in connection with the London
_Garden_, what we believe to be the first attempt at long and systematic
observation of the best culture as it is in London market gardens." This
is mentioned to indicate that the writer speaks on this subject from
experience. And although it is now seventeen years since I became
disconnected with the London market gardens, by revisiting them a few
years ago, and by correspondence and the horticultural press, I have
endeavored to keep informed of all changes of methods and improvements
in culture as practiced there. At that time Steele, Bagley, Broadbent,
Dancer, Pocock and Myatt were among the largest and best gardeners
around London, and since then several of these grand old gentlemen have
passed away and their fields have been cut up and built upon. At that
time mushrooms were one of the general crops, as were snap beans or
cauliflower, and in their season were planted as a matter of course.
To-day they have become a specialty, and some gardeners devote their
whole energy to mushroom-growing alone, and make from $2000 to $5000 a
year clear profit from one acre of mushrooms, and that, too, from ridges
in the open field! There is no other field crop that yields such a large
profit. There they get twenty-four to forty-eight cents a pound for
their fresh mushrooms, here we get fifty cents to a dollar a pound for
ours. But as mushroom-growing there is confined to fall, winter and
spring, those gardeners who restrict themselves to mushrooms only devote
the summer months to making mushroom spawn for their own use, and also
for sale.
Mr. John F. Barter, of Lancefield street, London, the king of London
mushroom growers, writes me under date of Dec. 10, 1888: "I employ men
for mushroom bed-making from August to March; then, in order to keep on
the same staff, I get about 10,000 bushels of brick spawn made up for
sale.... By the sale of spawn I make just half of my living." Now let us
see: 10,000 bushels = 160,000 bricks, and each brick weighs a pound,
thus we have 160,000 pounds. At ten cents a pound (retail price) the
total is $16,000; at five cents a pound (supposed wholesale price)
$8000, or at three and a half cents a pound (supposed manufacturer's
price) $5600.
The manure is obtained from the city stables and hauled home by the
gardeners on their return trips from market. The manure collected after
midsummer is used for mushrooms, and an effort is made to save the very
best horse manure for this purpose. When enough has accumulated for a
bed the manure is turned and well shaken, removing only the rougher part
of the straw, and thrown into a large pyramidal pile to heat; this shape
is adopted as being better than the flat form for keeping out rain. In
three or four days the manure is again turned, shaken out and piled up
as before; after this it is turned every second day, unless it rains,
until it has been turned six or seven times in all. It should then be
ready for making into ridges.
The site for the beds should be a warm, well-sheltered piece of ground,
either in the open field or orchard; much pains should be exercised to
protect it from cold winds. Although a great many mushroom ridges are
made under the partial shade of apple and pear trees, I always preferred
making them in the open ground. The land should be dry and of a slightly
elevated or sloping nature, so that no pools of water can possibly
collect on the surface. Having the ground cleared, leveled, and ready,
mark it off into strips two feet wide and six feet wide alternately. The
two feet wide space is for the mushroom bed, the six feet wide one for
the space between the beds; but after the ridges are built, earthed over
and covered with straw, they are almost six feet wide at the base. The
common sizes of ridges are two feet wide by two feet high, and two and
one-half feet wide by two and one-half feet high, and taper to six or
eight inches wide at top.
The manure being ready and the site for the beds lined off, the manure
is carted to the place and wheeled upon the beds. In making the bed
shake out the manure well and evenly to cause it to hold together, tamp
it with the back of the fork as you go along, and two or three times
before the ridges are completed walk upon and tread the manure down
solidly with the feet, and trim down the sides to turn the rain water.
Two days after the bed is made up some holes should be bored from the
top to nearly the bottom with a small iron bar to let the heat off and
prevent the inside of the bed from becoming too dry. Make them about
nine inches apart all along the center of the bed. The old gardeners did
not use the crowbar. They were very particular not to build their ridges
before the chances of overheating were considered past; but
notwithstanding all their care some of their beds would get overwarm,
when, without a moment's hesitation, they tossed them over, part to the
right and part to the left, and left the manure thus exposed for a day
or two to cool, and then make up the beds again on the same site.
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.
[Illustration: 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.
My old friends, George Steele and Mr. Bagley, of Fulham Fields, used to
run part of their beds east and west, not only for convenience sake so
far as the beds themselves were concerned, but with the view of growing
early tomatoes against the south side of these beds in summer, and here
they got their finest and earliest crops, for the London gardeners can
not grow tomatoes out of doors in the open fields as we can in America.
Other gardeners clear away the manure for use elsewhere in their fields,
and as it is so well rotted it is in capital condition for cauliflower,
lettuces, snap beans, and other crops. But as the mushroom growers who
restrict themselves entirely to mushrooms, and who, after the mushroom
beds have finished bearing, have no further use for the manure in the
spent beds, are always able to dispose of it at one-half the cost price.
It is excellent for garden crops and as a topdressing for lawns, on
account of its fineness and freedom from all rubbish as sticks, stones,
old bottles, old shoes, and the like, is in much demand.