Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
A list of amendments is at the end of the text.
The Country Series
OF
FARM, GARDEN, AND RURAL BOOKS FOR GENERAL USE,
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
W. ROBINSON, F.L.S.,
_Founder of “The Garden,” “Farm and Home,” and “Gardening Illustrated;”
Horticultural Editor of “The Field;” Author of “The Parks and Gardens of
Paris,” “Alpine Flowers for English Gardens,” “The Wild Garden,” “Hardy
Flowers,” &c._
MUSHROOM CULTURE
ITS
_EXTENSION AND IMPROVEMENT_
[Illustration: MOUTH OF MUSHROOM-CAVE NEAR PARIS]
[Illustration: BOTTOM OF SHAFT OF MUSHROOM-CAVE]
MUSHROOM CULTURE
ITS
_EXTENSION AND IMPROVEMENT_
BY
W. ROBINSON, F.L.S.
AUTHOR OF
_“The Parks and Gardens of Paris,” “Alpine Flowers,” &c._
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS
NO. 9 LAFAYETTE PLACE
LONDON, GLASGOW AND MANCHESTER
PREFACE.
MY reasons for writing this book are: First, that Mushroom Culture is
but little practised in this country compared to the extent to which it
ought to be, considering the abundance of the necessary materials in all
parts of these islands, both in town and country, and the high
estimation in which the Mushroom is held. I now refer to ordinary
Mushroom Culture as practised in our best private gardens. I believe it
possible and desirable to extend this, the only phase of the Culture
that can be called popular, in a tenfold degree, and that every place in
which a gardener and horses are kept should be abundantly supplied with
Mushrooms throughout the greater part of the year. Secondly, that
although Mushroom Culture as usually practised is perfectly well known
to good cultivators, a simpler and fuller account of it than has yet
appeared in any English book on the subject is desirable for the
unpractised amateur and cultivator. Thirdly, that Mushroom Culture is at
present confined to a too narrow groove; and a belief that the general
gardening public should have a broad and clear idea of the several ways
in which they may procure abundance of excellent Mushrooms with very
trifling expense. Even many of the best private growers never think of
it except as illustrated on their comparatively small beds in small
houses. I believe that if the knowledge of how easily and in how many
ways they may be grown, apart from the usual mode, were sufficiently
spread, it would lead to the production of many times our present
supply. Fourthly, a desire to introduce to this and other countries the
system of Mushroom Culture on a very large scale carried on in caverns
beneath the environs of Paris, which caverns I visited in 1868.
To these reasons I might add a wish to call attention to the waste of
money for Mushroom-spawn that now occurs in nearly every garden. There
is not the slightest necessity for this. In every garden where Mushrooms
are grown abundance of spawn may be made. Mr. W. P. AYRES writes lately
to tell me that in a great midland garden where the spawn bill used to
amount to 18_l._ or 19_l._ a year, by saving the spawn as the Parisian
growers do, all expense for this article is abolished.
I do not attempt to praise or even duly weigh the merits of the
Mushroom--that could only be adequately done by the immortal
BRILLAT-SAVARIN. He, however, seems to have somewhat neglected this most
precious of _légumes_. None but his serious soul could have approached
the subject with the necessary solemnity. Nobody but he who first saw
the deep dangers of hurried, thoughtless, and irreverent feeding, could
have done justice to its exquisite flavour when in the best condition,
or could have explained how deliciously it combined the virtues of herb
and flesh, unspeakably superior to either. Let us, in passing, quote one
of his aphorisms, contributed to form the _base éternelle à la science_:
“_La découverte d’un mets nouveau fait plus pour le bonheur du genre
humain que la découverte d’une étoile!_”
Now, I do not hesitate to say that the introduction of the Mushroom into
our domestic economy in as great a degree as we have it in our power to
produce it, would practically be the addition of a new agent in our
_cuisine_, second to none for its delicacy, and unsurpassed for utility.
It is true the Mushroom is plentiful in its season, but it is with us,
at all seasons when it is not to be gathered in the open air, a luxury
to numbers of owners of gardens who have means to grow it. As for the
much larger class who ought to be supplied from our markets, they seldom
see or taste a Mushroom except when these occur in profusion in our
fields, though every cart of stable-manure produced in this great
horse-keeping country may, on its way towards decomposition and
replenishing the earth, be made a nidus for furnishing many dishes of
them.
The illustrations showing the cave-culture of mushrooms are from my
“Parks, Promenades, and Gardens of Paris.” And the frontispiece is after
two large cuts of the mushroom caves of Paris, which appeared in the
_Illustrated London News_ some time after the appearance of my work. The
illustrations of edible fungi are by Mr. WORTHINGTON G. SMITH, who knows
and draws these interesting subjects so thoroughly well; and the other
figures are by Mr. HODGKIN.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
PAGE
WHERE MUSHROOMS MAY BE GROWN 1
CHAPTER I.
MUSHROOM CULTURE IN THE MUSHROOM-HOUSE 2
CHAPTER II.
THE PREPARATION OF THE MATERIALS, ETC. 13
CHAPTER III.
MUSHROOM-SPAWN 23
CHAPTER IV.
SPAWNING AND AFTER-TREATMENT 33
CHAPTER V.
CULTURE IN SHEDS, CELLARS, ARCHES, OUTHOUSES, AND ALL
ENCLOSED STRUCTURES OTHER THAN THE MUSHROOM-HOUSE 43
CHAPTER VI.
THE CAVE CULTURE OF MUSHROOMS, NEAR PARIS 57
CHAPTER VII.
CULTURE ON PREPARED BEDS IN THE OPEN AIR IN GARDENS AND
FIELDS 77
CHAPTER VIII.
CULTURE IN GARDENS, ETC., WITH OTHER CROPS IN THE OPEN AIR 84
CHAPTER IX.
MUSHROOM CULTURE IN PASTURES, ETC. 88
CHAPTER X.
THE COMMON MUSHROOMS 95
CHAPTER XI.
MODES OF COOKING THE COMMON MUSHROOMS 102
CHAPTER XII.
SOME OF THE MOST COMMON AND USEFUL EDIBLE FUNGI 108
MUSHROOM CULTURE.
WHERE MUSHROOMS MAY BE GROWN.
THE places in which mushrooms can be grown may be roughly grouped as
follows:--1. In the mushroom-house proper. 2. In sheds, cellars,
out-houses, stables, railway-arches, &c. 3. In deep caves, like those
near Paris, described further on. 4. In the open air, in gardens or
fields, on prepared beds. 5. In gardens, among various crops, without
any preparation beyond inserting the spawn. 6. In pastures where the
mushroom is not already established.
To these I might add another group, illustrated by the case of a Belgian
cook who grew a dish of mushrooms in a pair of old wooden shoes; but
practically we can treat of nearly every possible mode of growing the
mushroom under the above headings.
CHAPTER I.
MUSHROOM CULTURE IN THE MUSHROOM-HOUSE.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Mushroom-house at back of hothouses.]
CULTURE in the mushroom-house being the most practised, and, on the
whole, the most important phase of the subject, we will first treat of
it. And first of the mushroom-house itself. Its construction is very
simple: the conditions to be obtained are equable temperature, secured
by thick or hollow walls and by a double roof. Figure 1 shows a house
designed for me by Mr. Ormson, the well-known horticultural builder.
It is situated at the back of the hothouses, where a flow and return
pipe can be run through for artificial heat. The shelves for making the
beds upon are of slate 1½ in. thick, or of stone 2½ in. thick,
built into the walls, and into brick piers built in cement. Upright
slates, to slide in grooves, are placed along the front of the shelves
to keep the beds in.
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Ground-plan of preceding.]
The floor may be of paving tiles, or bricks, laid on concrete: a
skylight or two may be fixed in the roof, for the purpose of admitting a
little light, and air when necessary. The engraving (fig. 2), shows a
house of this description, 12 feet wide by 20 feet long, inside measure,
but, of course, the length may be extended as circumstances may
require.
As it is of importance in mushroom-growing that the air of the house
should be kept moderately moist, the underside of a slate or tile roof
should be lathed and plastered.
[Illustration: Fig. 3. View of unheated mushroom-house.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Section of preceding figure.]
Figure 3 represents a mushroom-house suitable for people of small means,
or those who cannot adopt plan No. 1. It is designed with a view to
growing mushrooms during the greater part of the year, without the aid
of artificial heat. To this end it is constructed in such a way as not
to be affected by changes of the external temperature, as will be seen
by the engraving. The walls are hollow, and banked round with the soil
excavated from the interior. The roof is thatched with reeds, and the
ends stud-work, lined inside with boards, and outside with split larch
poles: the cavity to be filled with sawdust or cut straw; a small
diamond-shaped ventilator, hung on pivots, to be fixed in each end. The
floor may be of concrete, or burnt clay well rammed; and the beds are
retained in their place by boards nailed to good oak posts. Care should
be taken to put in efficient drains, so that no stagnant damp may exist
about the building.
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Section of mushroom-house at Frogmore.]
Though the preceding cuts show how we may best attain our object, a few
more illustrations of mushroom-houses are desirable here. Figures 5 and
6 exhibit the plan of the mushroom-houses at Frogmore, obligingly
communicated by Mr. Rose.
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Ground-plan of mushroom-house at Frogmore.]
It need hardly be said that in such large mushroom-houses rhubarb and
sea-kale may be easily forced, and barbe de capucin, endive, &c.
blanched.
A small hot-water apparatus, with a 3-inch flow and return pipe, affords
the best means of heating a mushroom-house which is not so situated that
it may be heated from the boilers of adjacent hothouses. The best
position for the mushroom-house is against a north wall. The usual
precautions for guarding against damp walls and floor should be adopted
in the case of the mushroom-house, and the walls should be hollow.
Forsyth’s mushroom-house is described by the designer in Loudon’s
_Gardener’s Magazine_. Fig. 7 is a transverse section, showing the
arches under and over the beds, the thoroughfare _a_ is the middle, and
the position of the hot-water pipes, _c_; _b_ is an open shed and
general workshop, the receptacle of everything requiring protection, and
too clumsy to be otherwise housed.
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Mushroom-house under shed.]
A shed of this description is an indispensable adjunct to every
well-ordered garden, and in the present case it serves as a roof to the
mushroom-house. In the centre of each vault, shown in fig. 7, a circular
ventilator, _d_, 9 in. in diameter, should be made, having a stone and
cast-iron stopper, with a folding ring. The whole roof of the
mushroom-house is covered over with pavement, which at the same time
forms the floor of the shed above. Mr. Forsyth objects to cast-iron
shelves “on account of the rust, and to slate shelves, as being cold and
damp, and therefore not suitable to the purpose;” but he knows of no
objection to shelves built of bricks and mortar, kerbed with hewn stone
3 in. wide, and clamped together with lead.
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Mushroom-house at Stoke Place.]
[Illustration: Fig. 9.]
The annexed diagrams (figs. 8 and 9) exhibit the mushroom-houses used at
Stoke Place, both for summer and winter use, as described by Macintosh
in the “Book of the Garden.” “Of course the former is not heated; the
latter is, by 4-inch hot-water pipes, which are brought from a boiler
constructed to heat at the same time a range of pits for pines, melons,
&c., 89 feet long and 7 feet wide. The shelves are close-bottomed to
prevent the beds from drying too rapidly, and to require less watering,
which Mr. Patrick thinks a very important precaution in mushroom
culture. Ventilation is effected by a slide in the door, and a wooden
trunk up through the arch and roof, with a slide in it also. We do not
exactly see the motive of Mr. Patrick, whom we have long known and
esteemed as one of the best gardeners in England, in adopting the span
roof over this house, as, from its situation behind the garden wall, a
lean-to roof would have been cheaper and carried off the rain-water
better. It is rather a novel, but still a good plan, to have the inner
roof constructed of a brick arch, as it will of course save the outer
one from decay, to which all mushroom-house roofs are liable more than
any other kind of garden building. This house struck us at first sight
as very complete, excepting in breadth. We should increase it to 9
feet--that is, 3 feet for the breadth of the beds on each side, and the
same for the footpath, which at present is inconveniently narrow.”
[Illustration: Fig. 10. Russian mushroom-house.]
The Russian mushroom-house (fig. 10) is thus described by Mr. Oldacre,
in the _Horticultural Society’s Transactions_, vol. ii. first series.
“The outside walls should be 8½ feet high for four heights of beds,
and 6½ for three heights, and 10 feet wide inside the walls. This is
the most convenient width, as it admits of shelves 3½ feet wide on
each side, and affords a space through the middle of the house 3 feet
wide, for a double flue and a walk upon it.” Hot-water pipes were not in
use when this house was erected. “The walls should be 9 inches thick,
and the length of the house as may be judged necessary. When the outside
of the house is built, place a ceiling over it (as high as the top of
the walls) of boards 1 inch thick, and plaster it on the upper side with
road sand well wrought together, 1 inch thick, (this will be found
superior to lime), leaving square trunks, _f_, in the ceiling 9 inches
in width, up the middle of the house, at 6 feet distance from each
other, with slides, _s_, under them, to admit and take off air when
necessary. This being done, erect two single-brick walls, _v v_, each
five bricks high, at the distance of 3½ feet from the outside walls,
to hold up the sides of the lower beds, _a a_, and form one side of the
air-flue, _t u t u_, leaving 3 feet up the middle, _t x t_, of the house
for the floor. Upon these walls, _v v_, lay planks, _t u_, 4½ inches
wide and 3 inches thick, in which to mortise the standards, _t k_, which
support the shelves. These standards should be 3½ inches square, and
placed 4 feet 6 inches asunder, and fastened at the top to the ceiling
joists. When the standards are set up, fix the cross-bearers, _i n i n_,
that are to support the shelves, _o o_, mortising one end of each into
the standards, _n_, the other into the walls, _i_. The first set of
bearers should be 2 feet from the floor, and each succeeding set 2 feet
from that below it. Having thus fixed the uprights, _t k_, and bearers,
_i n_, at such a height as the building will admit, proceed to form the
shelves, _o o_, with boards 1½ inches thick, observing to place a
board, _d d_, 8 inches broad and 1 inch thick, in the front of each
shelf, to support the front of the beds. Fasten this board on the
outside standards, that the width of the beds may not be diminished. The
shelves being completed, the next thing to be done is the construction
of the flue (_p_ in section), which should commence at the end of the
house next to the door, run parallel to the shelves all the length of
the house, and return back to the fireplace, where the chimney should be
built; the sides of the flue inside to be of the height of four bricks
laid flatways, and 6 inches wide, which will make the width of the flues
15 inches from outside to outside, and leave a cavity, _t u_, on each
side betwixt the flue and the walls that are under the shelves, and one,
_x y_, up the middle, betwixt the flues, 2 inches wide, to admit the
heat into the house from the sides of the flues.” The introduction of
this form of house by Mr. Oldacre has led to much improvement in our
mushroom culture. The first house of this kind erected in England, was
built at Shipley, near Derby, in the garden of E. M. Mundy, Esq., by the
father of Mr. W. P. Ayres, whose name will be found frequently mentioned
in this work. There brick arches were formed for the shelves, and though
built more than half a century ago, the house is still in good
condition.
Although slate is generally used for the shelves, the adoption of
cast-iron gratings for this purpose is well worth a trial, as by this
means we may be enabled to cut mushrooms from the under as well as the
upper side of the bed.