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one may be able to build one shelf above another, until the shelves are two, three, or four deep. But this is a
mistake. The artificial heat required to maintain a temperature of 55° in midwinter in a house built high above
ground would be too parching and unsteady for the good of the mushrooms; besides, a second shelf is
inconvenient enough, and when it comes to a third or a fourth the inconvenience would be too great, and
overreach any advantage hoped for in economy of space. An unheated mushroom house must be regarded as a
CHAPTER III. 37
shed, and treated similarly, as described in the following chapter.
In large, well appointed, private gardens, a mushroom house is considered an almost indispensable adjunct to
the glasshouse establishment, and is generally built against the north-facing wall of a greenhouse. In this way
it gets the benefit of the warm wall, and may be easily heated by introducing one or two hot-water pipes from
the greenhouse system; besides, in winter the house may be entered from the glass house or adjacent shed, and
in this way be exempted from the inclement breath of the frosty air that would be admitted in opening the
outside door.
[Illustration: FIG. 10. INTERIOR VIEW OF MR. S. HENSHAW'S MUSHROOM HOUSE.]
=Mr. Samuel Henshaw's Mushroom House.=--Mr. Henshaw has raised mushrooms several years at his place
on Staten Island. His mushroom house is nine feet wide and sixty feet long. One side is a brick wall and the
other is double boarded. The roof is of tin, in which there are three sashes each two by five feet, supplying
ample light. At each end is a door giving convenient access to the interior, for carrying in and removing
material without disturbing the bearing beds. In winter the roof is covered with a coating of salt hay, to
preserve an equable temperature and prevent the moisture from condensing on the ceiling and falling in drops
on the beds. The floor is of earth, which, when well drained, he thinks preferable to either brick or lumber.
The floor is entirely covered with beds, no shelves or walks being used. This makes it necessary to step on the
beds, but as no covering is employed it is always easy to avoid stepping on the clusters of young mushrooms,
and so long as they are left uninjured the bed is seldom, if ever, impaired by the compacting effect of the
treading. In order to maintain a necessary winter temperature of 60° a four-inch hot-water pipe extends the
whole length of the house about two feet from the floor. On the other side of the brick wall is a greenhouse
which, by keeping the wall warm, helps to keep the mushroom house warm. Mr. Henshaw divides this house
into three equal beds. The part at the further end of the house is made up in the fall and comes into bearing in
December; the middle part a month later to come in a month later, and the near end still a month later, to
follow as another succession. Then, if need be, and he wishes to renew the bed at the further end of the house,
he clears it out and supplies fresh material for the new bed.
CHAPTER IV. 38
CHAPTER IV.
GROWING MUSHROOMS IN SHEDS.
Any one who has a snug, warm shed, may have a good mushroom house, but it is imperative that the floor
should be dry, and the roof water-tight. Of course a close shed, as a tool-house or a carriage-house, is better
than an open shed, but even a shed that is open on the south side, if closely walled on the other sides, can also
be made of good use for mushroom beds. While open sheds are good enough for beds that yield their crop
before Christmas, they are ill-adapted for midwinter beds. The temperature of the interior of a mushroom bed
should be about 60° during the bearing period, and the temperature of the surface of the bed 45° to 50° at
least; if lower than that the mycelium has a tendency to rest, and the crop stagnates. Now this temperature can
not be maintained in an open shed, in hard frosty weather, without more trouble than the crop is worth. The
beds would have to be boxed up and mulched very heavily. And even in a close, warm shed, protection in this
way would have to be given, but the bed should not be under the penetrating influence of piercing winds and
draughts. The mushroom beds should therefore be made in the warmest parts of the warmest sheds.
The beds should be made upon the floor and as much to one side as possible, so as to be out of the way, and in
form flat on the ground, or rounded up against the sides of the shed; in the latter case the house should be well
banked around on the outside with litter or tree leaves or earth, so as to exclude frost from the lower part of
the walls, and thereby prevent the manure in the beds from getting badly chilled. The beds should be made
deeper in a cool shed than in a cellar or warm mushroom house, so that they may retain their heat for a long
time.
Shelf beds should not be used in unheated sheds, because of the difficulty in keeping them warm in winter. As
a rule, shelf beds are not made as deep as are those upon the floor; hence they do not hold their heat so long.
When cold weather sets in it is easy to box up and cover over the lower beds to keep them warm, but in the
case of shelf beds, that are exposed above and below, it is more trouble to protect them sufficiently against
cold than they are worth.
Generally speaking, the term shed is applied to unheated, simple wooden structures; for instance, the
wood-shed, the tool-shed, a carriage-house, or a hay-barn. But we often use the name shed to designate heated
buildings, as the potting and packing sheds of florists. Were it not that these heated sheds are simply
workrooms, and where there is a great deal of going out and in, and, consequently, draughts and sudden and
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