Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1917 — MAN “MINES” MUSHROOMS [ARTICLE]

MAN “MINES” MUSHROOMS

Expert Uses Deserted Coal Mine inWest Virginia as Farm With A Success. _______ • '"?• " '•'' ■ : Morgantown. W. Va.—The queerei theplace selected for a mushroom garden, the finer, it seems, is the growth of th.is popular table delicacy. The last word in a mushroom farm, how* ever, is such a garden placed in th*i depths of a deserted coal mine, hufr deeds of feet below the ground. Not far from Morgantown there is located this old coal mine, known /ia the Pittsburgh coal seam in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Theodore F. Itnbach, an assistant in the state agricultural experimenting station at Morgrintown, obtained M permit from the owners of the property. He encamped oh the first level, and made 'cjiemicttl analysis of the rocky soil. -'He found it was rich in indisture and its constituents exactly those needed by edible fungi for their quickest pnd most luxuriant growth. He, therefore, started a mushroom farm and found the spot was ideal for his purpose. *Thls “mushroom mine” makes large shipments/ weekly to the city market*