The Savannah morning news., 1904-06-20
Mushrooms for the Farmer.


Like most other people. we like
mushrooms. We will have them, too.
/ And almost every other farmer in the
| land can have them if he will only
/ plant a little spawn in the right spot,
says the Practical Farmer Mushroom
| specialists may be able to have mush-
| rooms almost any time of the year.
| Few farmers, however, can do better
than TO have them at their natural
season, which is in the fall when cool
weather sets in. At that time the wild
! product grows in the old pastures. We
! sometimes find them in this vicinity in
| great abundance, and if on some cool
morning in early fall, especially after
We had a light sprinkling during the
night, we Will start early enough (usu-
ally by lantern light and get ahead of
other lovers of mushrooms who also
know where they grow naturally, we
may gather and bring home a half
bushel or bushel of these delicious
fungi, and feast on them, and have our
| friends feast on them, for two or there
days at a time. and perhaps until we
| can get new supply.
why don't they grow on my own
place. my friend asks. You can have
| them grow there just as WELL provided
you have some rich old pasture lot or
cattle yard, where the soil is loamy.
I the sod thick and toughy and the
ground well drained by nature.
How do 1 have to plant them?"
comes the next question.
Simple enough. Send to your seeds
man for a few pounds of spawn. You
can get it by the single pound, free by
mail, at about % cents, and in larger
quantities, by express, at 1871 to Is
! cents per pound. 1t comes in two or
three different forms, in bricks, flakes
and tablets. The brick form is the
cheapest, and the one generally used,
although the fake form is just as good
perhaps, it all depending on its fresh
ness A fresh mushroom brick when
broken. emits that peculiar and un-
lnistakable mushroom odor, and Shows
the white threads running all through
it which represent the root or myceli-
um of the mushroom. Break the brick
into pieces about as large as a walnut
or a small hens egg. Then with a
sharp spade cut through the sod, say
two inches deep, and in such a way
that you can lift up the point of IL
tie triangle of sod, place a piece of the
spawn under it, let the sod go back in
its place and firmly step on it. That is
about all you have to do What is the
right season for the operation?' Some
time in June. During the warm wealth
ct IOilONluB lHt SPdN II Will Iull, lldA
is, send its roots or mycelium all
through the soil and sod and get ready
| TO fruit in September and October.
| How far should the pieces of spawn
| be placed apart In the tield?" That
| depends on the quantity of spawn
which is available for the purpose. We
cannot plant mushroom spawn as
closely over a pasture lot as we would
plant it in a regular small mushroom
bed. 1t would be somewhat expensive,
unless we utilize some of the myceli-
untitled manure out of a spent mush-
room bed of our own. But we can
select some of the most promising spots
in the lot, where the soil is we'll filled
with manure, and rather dry, and in
sert little spawn here and there, in
the manner already explained. The
trouble is slight: the results often very
gratifying. A dollars worth of spawn
will go quite a ways, and may give you
returns in mushrooms for years to
come.