Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1897-03-04
Mushrooms In Caves,


record. writing from Grand Rapids,
Michigan, says:
"A. RI. Apted has mushroom plan
tatlon," the only one in this city and
30 far as heard from the only one in
michigan. Florists and market gar
deners raise mushrooms in the dark
corners of their lighthouses, but with
.hem 1t is merely side issue, while
Apted makes a business of it. The
plantation" is not remarkable for the
number of its spreading acres, but it
could easily be developed into farm
OF good size. 1t is located in the old
plaster quarry, and while some
FARMS are available for crops only
at certain seasons of the year, Apted
can pluck his mushrooms all the year
around and can regulate the quantity
produced by figuring three or four
months ahead; and this, too, without
tne slightest difference in the expense.
Inc plaster quarry is just outside of
Tue southwest corner of the city limits,
on the west side. It was the first quarry
opened here and runs into side hill,
cropping out at the highway. It has
oeen worked for forty years and the
excavations spread under twenty acres.
Inc quarry is being worked as stead
ny now as at any time in it's history,
with crews of miners pounding away
ana blasting out the gypsum to be
manufactured into stucco or wall-fin-
Ism. Apted's father is superintendent
OF the works and his plantation is 10
Gated IN some of the deserted CALLER
les. One must be familiar with the
route to find the beds. and the intri-
cacy OF the way is a safeguard against
lnarauders as good as are police or
dogs. The mine is always open, day
and night, but there has never been
any trouble from trespassers. The
temperature does not very degrees
from one years end to the other, rang
ing from so to Is degrees and not going
below this even in the coolest winter
weather. Mushrooms would stand to
advantage a slightly higher tempera-
ture, but this does very we'll. The
most serious objection to the mine lies
IN the fact that it dries up in winter
and the room is so large that it is
| impossible to increase the moisture by
artificial methods, as could be done in
cellar OF greenhouse. When too dry
the mushrooms are likely to be at
tackled by fungus which impairs their
quality and even destroys them. Mush-
room farming is simple when the Sc
| crets of the business are learned, and
as conducted by Mr.. Apted it is highly
profitable. Fresh horse manure and
loan is carted into the cave and laid
In beds fifteen inches deep and 10 by
20 feet in area. The mixture heats to
12O or 100 degrees at first and when
this subsidies the bed is sown with
spawn. The mushroom spawn is pro-
duced in England and France chiefly
and is imported into this country in
the form Of bricks or as fakes and
the fungus is propagated by growth
and division. The mushrooms give off
spores which act as seed for the growth
Of the plant, but all efforts to gather
the seed have failed. The spawn
grower prepares a bed of manure and
loan and when its condition is just
right it is cut into bricks and into each
piece is placed a small piece of spawn.
The growth is rapid and in a few weeks
each brick is impregnated with the
fungus. The growth is stopped at just
the right time by drying the brick and
these bricks will keep indefinitely I'M
der proper conditions. When the
spawn is to be used to sow bed Of
mushrooms it is divided into small bits
and these bits are planted about two
inches deep ten to fifteen inches apart
in the beds prepared for it in the cave.
cellar or mine. About three months
are required for bed to develop. Then
the mushrooms come up thick and
fast. The mushroom is not the plant
itself but the fruit of the plant. The
plant, as it fills the soil, resembles
thick net of little white threads or
flbers. When the mushroom has been
given to the world the plant dies and
new bed must be prepared and re-
planted. The Grand Rapids plaster
quarry where the mushrooms are
grown is dark to absolute blackness
and the cultivation and harvesting are
all done by torchlight. To stranger
the sight is weird, indeed, to come
suddenly upon one of the mushroom
beds. The mushrooms, growing singly
and in punches, in the torchlight have
brilliant whiteness and seem to reflect
the light. Around the mushrooms. IT
closely examined. will be found hosts
of little flies, which seem to thrive in
the darkness.
The Worden Grape.-A black grape
so neary identical in bunch, berry,
growth, hardness and productiveness
with the Concord that they can scarcely
be distinguished from each other, ex-
cent the Worden may be a few days
earlier, and is more tender in the skin
and will not handle and ship as we'll;
subject to n0t.-Ex.
Horticultural Notes.
The family garden should be an I'M
portant part of the farm.
The specialist is more dependent
81 md Gov