Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1878 — Growing Mushrooms. [ARTICLE]

Growing Mushrooms.

The mushroom is » very accommodating plant and will grow in the cellar, in sheds, stables, dubs, old hats, on shelves in the garden, in dark er light. What a chance this affords the bqys to have both fun ami fruit too, by making abed in some curious old thing and keeping the matter a secret until it is all white with splendid mushrooms. 411 that is needed for the success is a temperature from 50 to 60 deg., some fresh horse manure and a little spawn.

Having procured what fresh horse manure is needed, mix it well with about one-third of its bulk of good loam and you are prepared to make beds in whatever form and in whatever' place you prefer/ If you determine to make beds make them narrow, certainly not more than five feet in breadth and about fifteen - inches in 'heipht. The materialmust be made compact by boating down as evenly as possible. If under cover, the beds may bo made flat on the top, but if in the open air should be rounded to shed the rain. After the beds have been made a week there will be considerable heat produced by the fermentation of the manure. Bricks of spawn should have been secured previously, and they can bo had from most seedsmen, postage or expressage free, at about thirty cents a pound. Break them in nieces about as largo as walnuts, ana insert in the bods just below the surface, about ten inches apart;. One pound of spawn is sufficient for a space two by six feet; then cover the beds with an inch or more of good earth, pressing it down with the back of the spade If tho material should appear very dry, water lightly with warm water. Mushrooms will begin to appear in about six weeks after planting the spawn and can be gathered, for three or four weeks. In gathering take up the mushroom entire, leaving no stem in the bed, and placing a little earth in the hole made by the removal. When the crop is gathered cover the bed with a little more earth, beating It down gently, and give a pretty good moistening with tepid water, and in about a month more another crop will be produced.— Vick's Floral Guide.