Mushroom-Growing In

The Tropics

By “Agricola.”

RESIDENTS in the Islands appreciate every touch of variety that can be added to the menu, particularly if the addi tion be something not out of a tin. There are very few Islanders who will despise mushrooms.

A few mushrooms grow spontaneously in the lawns and paddocks, but seldom can be gathered in sufficient quantities to be really useful to the cook; and there is al ways the fear of poisonous fungi being picked in mistake.

The elaborate methods of commercial mushroom growers in France and else where call for more spare time than most planters can afford, and although several people have imported bricks of spawn, there is no record of success. The ivory nut mushroom, an excellent and wholesome variety, frequently can be bought from the villagers in some Pacific Islands, or can be grown by felling and splitting an ivory

palm, leaving it in a convenient position, and letting nature do the rest.

A wonderful bed of mushrooms grew in rather an incredible fashion on a San Cristoval, B.S.I., plantation. A whale was cast ashore, and the enterprising planter boiled it down in approved style and ship ped a sample away, hoping to make up in whale oil his losses on copra. His reward was a debit note, and in disgust he emptied the remainder of the oil on the grass. Not long afterwards the spot was covered with mushrooms, which kept on growing for many months.

However, whales are cumbersome and unwholesome, and are not readily avail able, A simpler method was chanced upon by a plantation manager in the Solomons, who grew a paddock of corn for stock feed. The cobs and husks were thrown in a heap outside the shed, and in a few weeks giant mushrooms sprouted up freely, in the cob-heap. No attention was given, no spawn planted, and the planter con cerned had his doubts about the mush rooms; they seemed too good to be true.

However, many people can testify to the excellence of the mushrooms, and quite a few planters not previously interested in corn are planting it now.