iUI ANNUAL KKJ'OKT (.» K THE Oft. Doc. 



rooms t<> advantage, but nobody wants to go into it with the idea 

 that it is n soft snap and there is nothing to do. 



Now, I hardly know where to begin in the matter; but I drafted 

 a few notes and 1 presume that the beginning would be, probably, 

 the preparation of the manure for the bed. The scientific people, 

 of which 1 am not one, tell us that the mushroom is composed 

 mainly of nitrogen, so we buy manures that are rich in nitrogen, 

 horse-stable manure being our best source of nitrogen supply for the 

 manufacture of the material to make the beds of. This manure must 

 not be burned; it must be made into a compost, and the nitrogen that 

 is contained therein, which is very volatile, must be saved. Unless 

 your manure is made into a thorough compost, you are not going to 

 get any mushrooms, and to accomplish this, and you all are familiar 

 with the fact, horse-stable manure thrown into a pile in two or three 

 days will heat and turn white and then your nitrogen is gone out of 

 it and it is good for nothing to raise mushrooms, so when you get 

 your mushroom manures delivered on your ground, the first thing 

 you must do is to wet it. You will never get a compost until it has 

 been thoroughly wet. Then you must turn it every day or every two 

 days, or it will heat very hot, up to 140 or 160 degrees, and if it does, 

 you will lose your nitrogen out of it, and as I said before it will be 

 good for nothing to raise mushrooms. So you must turn it every 

 two or three days until it is done heating. When the temperature 

 begins to fall, when it has gone down to, probably 100, or somewhere 

 in that neighborhood, then you may safely let it lie until you are 

 ready to make your beds; then it must be thoroughly composted, 

 because your mushrooms won't grow except in a thorough compost 

 rich in nitrogen. 



Now having prepared your manure you put it in your bed. I shall 

 probably have to explain a little about the building of the houses, 

 but I will do that later on. When you put it into your bed, put it into 

 beds approximately a foot deep. It should be tramped or rammed 

 down pretty solid, quite solid in fact. But there is one point I omitted. 

 When the manure is first hauled, I usually put soil or loam on it. 

 The books say one-third loam or one-third soil. Our friend who first 

 spoke said that soil was a great conservator of nitrogen, and the 

 earth, as we can understand, is put in there to help hold and retain 

 the nitrogen which you wish to transfer into mushrooms. Then 

 after you have put it into beds, practically about a foot deep, some 

 say that ten inches is enough, but I guess a foot is rather better, 

 it will probably heat up again. It will probably go to 125 or 130 

 degrees. If it shows signs of burning, it is because you have put 

 it in before it has thoroughly done heating. If it begins to burn, 

 you must wet and cool it down. When it has shrunk to 100 degrees 

 or, probably better still, to 90, you may put your spawn in there. 



