'2^-2 STUDIES OF AMERICAN FUNGI. 



Where the beds are made successively, one after another, follow- 

 ing the windrow of manure, the material used for the first bed 

 removes from the windrow a sufficient amount to make room for the 

 second bed, and in like manner room for the successive beds is pro- 

 vided for as the material is taken for each one, so that the frames 

 are put together and the beds are formed rapidly and easily. 



Making ridge beds in caves. In the making of the ridge beds in 

 caves there are two methods which might be spoken of. One 

 method is the well known one practiced in certain of the caves near 

 Paris, where the material is taken by workmen in large baskets and 

 distributed in rows. The ridge is gradually formed into shape by 

 walking astride of it, as additional material is emptied on from the 

 baskets, the workmen packing and shaping the ridge by pressure 

 from their limbs as they stand astride of the row. In this way the 

 ridges are made as high or somewhat higher than their breadth at 

 the base, and quite near together, so that there is just room in 

 many cases to walk between the beds. In one cave in America, 

 where the ridge system is used to some extent, the ridges are made 

 with the aid of a board frame the length of the bed and the width of 

 the base of the ridge. The long boards of this frame are slanting so 

 that they are more or less the shape of the ridge, but not equal to its 

 height. This frame is placed on the rock bottom, filled with manure 

 and tramped on by the workmen. Then the frame is lifted on the 

 ridge and more material is added and tramped on in like manner, 

 until the bulk of the ridge bed is built up in this way and com- 

 pressed into shape. 



Beds in Houses Constructed for the Purpose of Growing Mushrooms. 

 Where only the floor of the house is used, a middle bed and two side 

 beds are sometimes formed in the same manner as described in the 

 construction of the house for the tiers of beds, with an alley on 

 either side of the large center bed, giving access to all. In some 

 cases the entire surface of the bottom is covered with material, but 

 divided into sections of large beds by framework of boards, but with 

 no alleys between. Access to these beds is obtained by placing 

 planks on the top of the boards which make the frame, thus form- 

 ing walks directly over portions of the bed. In some cases ridge 

 beds, as described for cave cultivation, are made on the floor of 

 these houses. The beds are filled in the same way as described for 

 the cave culture of mushrooms, but usually, in the beds made in 

 houses built for the purpose of growing mushrooms, a percentage of 

 soil is mixed in with the manure, the soil being usually mixed in 

 at the time of turning the manure during the process of fermentation. 



