The Japanese are very successful in cultivating a mushroom which they call "Shiitake" or "Lepiota shiitake." China also produces the same mushroom, but of an inferior quality. The Chinese therefore prefer the mushroom cultivated by the Japanese, which they import from Japan in large quantities. It is cultivated on a variety of trees, but is said to grow best on the "Shiinoki," a species of oak (Quercus cuspidata). There are three varieties of "Shiitake," the spring, summer, and autumn crops differing somewhat in quality. The method of growing the "Shiitake" is given by the Japanese Commissioner of Agriculture as follows: "Trees of from twenty to fifty years' growth are cut down at the approach of winter when the sap has ceased to run, and after the lapse of twenty or thirty days, according to the condition of the drying of the wood, are sawed into logs of 4 or 5 feet in length. Into each of these logs incisions are made with a hatchet, at intervals of about 6 inches, and they are piled regularly upon a frame-work erected at a height of about Recent reports of the Japanese Agricultural Department show the total value of the annual export of "Shiitake" to be nearly five hundred thousand "yen" (silver). |