Oklahoma Farmer (Guthrie, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 21, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 21, 1904 Page: 2 of 16
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OKLAHOMA PARMER, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21,1904.
OOOO
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any problem of common in1eres] in CEMERaPACRICULTUBE Will be OlSCUSStD IN THIS DtPARlMENl 0 AUDRESSt0 10 IHt ^HMtR
J
j, — Mushrooms Pay Well.
(By Prof. Q. E. Stone, Massachusetts
Board of Agriculture.)
Total darkness is .not absolutely es-
sential for Hie growth of mushroom*,
as they will grow in a diffuse light.
K is durable to have a tolerably
dry foundation for a mushroom bed.
The conditions of a cellar can be made
suitable for mushroom growing, es-
pecially for amateurs who wish-to go
into the business on a small scale.
By partitioning off a portion of the
cellar and closing 'up the windows,
more constant and uniform conditions
can be obtained. Spacg under green-
house benches can be made especially
suited to mushroom culture, and many
grower stake advantage of this space
for their propagation.
The most suitable soil conditions
for mushroom culture consists in sup-
plying the beds with plenty of good
horse manure, mixed with loain or de-
composed sod., mixing abou.t #one-
fourth or one-fifth loam or decomposed
sod with manure. Either'tresh or par-
tially rotted manure can be used, and
this should*repeatedly be well worked
over, composted and watered frequent-
ly, taking care that it does not burn,
yter it has been well worked over
and composted various times and the
heat is not likely to rise above 130 de-
grees Fahrenheit, it should be thor-
oughly incorporated with one*.ourth
to one-fifth decomposed loam or sod.
* It can remain in this condition unt>l
ready for use.
The beds are usually made up ten to
fourteen inches deep, and in these are
as in that case one is likely to lose
the crop.
Before the mushrooms have made
their appearance through the loam,
a temperature of from 65 to 75 de-
grees Fahrenheit may be obtaned; but
after the niushroonfs have commenced
to develop, the temperature should be
kept about 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If
the temperature goes above 60 de-
grees Fahrenheit, some means should
be employed to lower it, and if it goes
below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, it should
be raised either by covering the beds
or by applying artificial heat. Beds
should never be allowed to become too
Mushroom spawn with manure and
pressed to the bricks.
placed the soil and manure for grow-
ing tlieni. The bottom of the bed
should be supplied with six ificlies
of fresh man-are, well tamped down.
It should be covered'with the prepared
manure and loam«mentioned above, ad-
ding about two inches at a time, and
compacting the same. It it shows a
tendency to heat up too much, in-
corporate a little loam into it. One or
two layers, two inches deep, of the
prepared loam and manure can be put
on each day until the required depth
is obtained. Straw or some mulching
material it then put over the top of
he bed until ready to spawn. This
answers the purpose of catching the
condensed team and keeping the sur-
face from getting too wet.
After the t.em perature of the be is
lias reached abouf 'JO or 115 degrees
Fehrenheit, the straw should be re-
moved and the bed spawns, although
some growers prefert a temperature
of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This
is accomplished by breaking the bricks
into ftieces and planting the pieces
in rows in the bed# The rows should
be one foot apart, and the pieces of
spawn inserted every six or eight
inches and covered* up superficially
with the soil.
When spawning is completed, com-
•pact the surface of the bed all ovej.
After this is accomplished the bed can
again be covered with straw and in
the course of eight or nine days the
straw is removed and the bed covered
with two inches of good, mellow lown
Care should be taken that the tem-
per&turc of the bed does not exceed
SO degrees Fahrenheit, after coverfbg
Cross section of a mushroom house.
The house is constructed of wood and
earth banked up all round and the
earth is covered with hay or straw.
dry, and must je kept tolerably moist,
either By employing matting or old
carets before the mushrooms appear,
.or by sprinkling with water.
Where special attention is given to
commercial mushroom'growing, hous-
es are constructed which arc' adapted
to the growth of this crop. The style
of wooden houses shown represent
types that have been utilized for some
time by various commercial growers
of mushrooms. The houses usually sit
two or three feet below the level of
the ground, afld dirt is piled up j>n ei-
ther side to th# level of the plates
which support the roof. These types
of houses have usually been built of
wood, and the rocrf is covered with
hay or marsh grass. Ihe beds are ei*
ther built on the ground or slightly
raised. In the latter case they are
provided with board sides, thus leav-
ing room for a path, as shown. Some
improvement has been made in recent
years in tli® style of houses for mush-
room culture. One of the principal
objections to the wooden houses shown
is that such are likely to rot out quick-
ly, and it is expensive to renew them.
It is necessary, with a crop like
mushrooms, as it is with many others,
to go oter the beds each day and gath-
er the mature specimens. These are
gathered in trays, care being taken
not to have them become soiled in
handling.
In picKing mushrooms it is recom-
mended that they should not be cut
off at the base, but gently twisted and
Section of mushroom cellar bed cov-
ered with boards and matting and
banked up with earth.
® " (§i
removed from the soil. When it. is
necessary to cut, as is sometimes the
case when they come up in large num-®
bers, it is recommended that, the butts
be subsequently removed and Ihe hob s
filled with soil, in order to preveht
decay. Mushrooms can be kept in a
cool, dark place for two or three days
afte rpicking, with little detriment.
Nonparasitic Diseases.
(By Prof. M. B. Waite, Bureau of.Plant
Industry. United States Department
of Agriculture.)
One of the troubles of the apple
grower of the eastern states is pov-
erty of the soil. Of course this is hard-
ly a disease, 'strictly speaking, but it
amounts to the same thing in practical
orcharding. The remedy for this is,
of course, too well Known to discuss.
Manuring and fertilizing often accom-
plish wonders in the apple orchard,
Especially when accompanied by good
cultivation, timely spraying: and prun-
ing.
Hard pan* or impervious, hard, un-
suitable subsoil is frequently-the cause
of failure in apple growing. In our west
ern*irrigated orchards, in some places,
beds of marl and gypSum occur close
to the top of the ground and what
would otherwise be a good orchard
®soil is unsuitable for apples,on this
account. Shallow rooting peaches and
stone fruits frequently grow well on
these soils on which the apple fails.
Strange to say, rock subsoils are often
less injurious than these streaks ot
nard pan, as *the roots of the apple
can frequently penetrate the crevices
of the rock. In some instances blast-'
ing with dynamite «in the bottom of
the hole before planting the tree has
difficulty, but, of course the ordinary
recommendation would be to avoid this
kind of land for apples. On these hard
pan soils, not only in the western
states, but in the tough, claey subsoils
of the east, the roots are so "shallow
that the trees are frequently iojured
by freezing. The roots of an apple ■
tree are by no means as. hardy as the
top. «
Our western irrigated orchards often
suffer from alkali, either brought
down in the water used in irrigatioon
or brought to the surface from deep-
seated i>%ds by the'evaporation and
upward movement of the soil water.
Prof. Paddock of Colorado has pointed
* oue some of these injuries to the apple
resulting from alkali and gypsum beds.
These diseases are very troublesome
to th eeastern pathologists for the rea-
son'that we have ndthing like them.
Samples sent in cut from the tops of
the trees, .while they show a diseased
condition, contain® no parasites and
give up clew as to the cause of the
difflciflty. Bad drainage and drown-
ing, resutig from asphyxiation of the
•suj v. si 'sjooj Suipaaj pub s-ftuq loot
quent trouble with apple orchards.
Rich bottom lands are especially suited
to the apple, but they must be open
unSerneath and must allow the water
to settle away, otherwise the trees
will suffer. Strange to say, there
seems to be more suffering from this
type of trouble in the irrigated apple
orchards of the west than in the hu-
mid sections of the country. Dead
trees or frequently large areas of sickly
or dying orchards .have been directly
attributed to using an excess of water.
Of course, the remedy in the irrigated
orchards is to use® just the right
amount of water and .conserve this
with proper cultivation which., so far
as I know, has never been accused
of injuring an apple orchard. In ttie
humid regions the remedy is under
drainage.
(k>ui mere i a 1 Pert i 1 i zers.
(By W. F. McSparran.)
The use of c.ommefcial fertilizers
among the best farmers of the east
is firmly established as one of the
economic demands of farming. There
has been considerable investigation
and experimentation on the part of
our experiment statioi) and practical
farmers, more or less clearing away
of false ideas "relative to the composi-
tion and uses of commercial manure,
and a number of scientific facts of
general application established. But
the one time hope that a sample of
soil from a field could be subjected to
analysis and'the fertility needs of the ■
field be exposed and any deficiency
sftpplied per formula or prescription,
has never been realized.
Simple field experiments have fail-
ed too to establislran invariable guide
as'to what is best for some other field
or for a dozen other fields, for there
are few fields that are exactly alike
in their contents of active or potential
plant food. Then we have the modifi-
cations of physical conditions, drain-
age, moisture and seasonal infiuences.
The land that is well supplied with
humus will need different treatment
from land deficient in that valuable
constituent; the quantity of- animal
manures used, the frequency of their
application and somewhat the charac-
ter of the feeds given the" animals,
the completeness with which the ma-
nure of the animals is saved, are all
factors that must be taken into con-
sideration against our being able to
feel the pulse of our fields and ad-
minister always the best medicine.
Therefore, we expensive users of
commercial fertilizers, in our general
farming, have come to recognize the
fact that we must simply do the best
we can and trust that it may be all
right at harvest. And it generally Is,
for we find that where #the culture is
good, the seed'vital—in short, where
ihe farmer lends "friendly assistance"
his increase of crop from an inteUi-
gent use of bought fertilizer rarely
fails to show a good profit on the in-
vestment.
In my own farming operations I
have about discontinueu the use of
ammoniated fertilizers, where nitrogen
must be bought the cost is too great.
True, for garden vegetables, and some-
times for top dressing timothy fields,
I use nitrate of soda—this where 1
keep the timothy sod unbroken for a
number of years. On my general farm
land when in the rotation of crops „
can use red clover and as catch
crops use crimson clover, soy
beans, cow peas and vetch, and
wli'ere I can work in liberal and
frequent dressings' of stable crops
and commercial feeds, I confine
my purchases of commercial fer-
Tnese I buy in muriate of potash
n!,nr to nntosh an4 phosphoric acid
and acid phosphate, and usually do
my own mixing. For wheat and rye
I generally use a mixture of 1,
pounds of muriate of potash and drill
in with the wheat from 300 to 400
pounds of the mixture per acre, at a
cost of about $16 per ton.
Supports for Peas.
The expense of supports for peas Is
a detriment to their cultivation, and
for that reason many prefer the
dwarf varieties, which, though early,
are nto as prolific as the taller growing
kinds. It has been suggested that 3-
inch mesh of woven wire be used in
the rows for peas, having the rows
run north and south, planting early
peas on the east side and later kinds
on the west. When the i>eas are re-
moved set out large pot gdown tomato
plants. The wire should last for sev-
eral years.
0 f rt — S*n l> Fifed
t?«U Grinder
(til oo OiWinlzid
j Steel Wind Mill.,
Wo manufactura all sizes
■tylos. It will.
pay you to In-1
vrntlr «11 . Write
foi rut a log mul j
price list.
CURRIE WIND MILL 00.,
Toptka, Kansas.
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Greer, Frank H. Oklahoma Farmer (Guthrie, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 21, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 21, 1904, newspaper, September 21, 1904; Guthrie, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc88017/m1/2/?q=%22Guthrie+%28Okla.%29+--+Newspapers.%22&rotate=90: accessed July 6, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.