Читать книгу One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money - Harold Morse Dunphy - Страница 100

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If you have a cellar that is not in use, you have the foundation for a good living in the growing of mushrooms.

Dig up the space you desire to use for this purpose, digging it deep, and pulverize the earth thoroughly. Then add a quantity of fine, black dirt, rich in phosphates, with a liberal amount of some good fertilizer. Then water the prepared bed thoroughly, and put in the spawn, which you can buy very cheaply almost anywhere. Your mushrooms, when well started, will produce a crop every month, but from September to May is the season when they bring the highest prices, ranging from 75 cents to $1.50 per pound, at hotels, cafes, etc. Give them considerable attention, especially at first, keeping them well watered and giving them plenty of air, but not too much light, and keep the temperature at from 60 to 70 degrees the entire time.

One person we know of, from a bed of 4 feet long by 3 feet wide, and three bricks of spawn, eight weeks after starting, produced two and one-half pounds of mushrooms every two days, or about nine pounds a week. At an average price of $1.00 per pound, this brought an addition of $9.00 a week to his regular income, and required but a few hours of his spare time in the growth of the product. By doubling his space, he could have doubled his profits from this source, and $18 a week from a “side line” is a sum not to be despised, especially when it involves so little labor and time, requires no capital and carries with it no risk of any kind.