246 STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI. 



the support on the other side as in the arrangement of beds on the 

 side tiers in the mushroom houses ; or tiers of beds may be arranged 

 in the same way, one bed on the bottom, and one or two beds above. 

 The number of beds will vary according to the available space. 

 Sometimes, where it is not convenient to arrange the larger beds 

 directly on the bottom of the cellar, or in tiers, boxes three or four 

 feet, or larger, may be used in place of the beds. These can be 

 put in out of the way places in the cellar. The use of boxes of this 

 description would be very convenient in case it was desired to 

 entirely do away with the possibility of odors during the fermenta- 

 tion of the manure, or in the making up of the bed. Even though 

 the manure may be cured outside of the cellar, at the time it is made 

 in the beds the odors released are sometimes considerable, and for 

 several days might be annoying and disagreeable to the occupants 

 of the dwelling, until such a time as the temperature of the manure 

 had dropped to the point where the odors no longer were perceptible. 

 In this case, with the use of boxes, the manure can be cured outside, 

 made into beds in the boxes and taken into the cellar after the 

 temperature is down to a point suitable for spawning, and very little 

 odor will be released. If there is a furnace in the cellar it should be 

 partitioned off from the portion devoted to mushroom culture. 



Cultivation in sheds or out of the way places. It is possible to grow 

 mushrooms in a number of places not used for other purposes. In 

 sheds where the beds may be well protected from the rain and from 

 changing currents of air, they may be grown. In open sheds the 

 beds could be covered with a board door, the sides of the bed being 

 high enough to hold the door well above the mushrooms. In the 

 basements of barns, or even in stables where room can be secured 

 on one side for a bed, or tier of beds, they are often grown success- 

 fully. 



Garden and field culture of mushrooms. In Europe, in some cases, 

 mushrooms are often grown in the garden, ridge beds being made up 

 in the spring and spawned, and then covered with litter, or with 

 some material similar to burlaps, to prevent the complete drying out 

 of the surface of the beds. Sometimes they are cultivated along 

 with garden crops. Field culture is also practiced to some extent. 

 In the field culture rich and well drained pastures are selected, and 

 spawned sometime during the month of May. The portions of 

 spawn are inserted in the ground in little T-shaped openings made 

 by two strokes of the spade. The spade is set into the ground once, 

 lifted, and then inserted again so that this first slit is on one side of 

 the middle of the spade and perpendicular to it. The spade is in- 



