No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 223 



The spawn is buried under the surface of the manure, probably an 

 inch to an inch and a half. A mushroom is a thing that grows on 

 top of the ground. The spawn runs on top of the ground; then it is 

 "cased over" as we call it; that is, it is covered with about an inch 

 of fine loam. Now there is one very important thing to be taken 

 into consideration and that is, Nature does everything right. The 

 mushroom grows well in a native state in our fields; however, a long 

 protracted dry 'spell is often followed by heavy rain and hot sun. 

 Now if you put your manure into your beds too wet, I have had a 

 little experience in that line myself, you don't get any mushrooms. 

 The manure should be a little dry rather than too wet. If you 

 take up a handful of manure into your hand and you squeeze the 

 water out of it, you had better pile it up and let it dry. If it will 

 just simply retain its shape, is is pretty nearly in the right condition. 



Now as to spawning your beds. I have constructed racks made 

 out of plastering lath four feet square, nailed across eight inches 

 making a square of eight inches. I find that is preferable to any 

 other plan of regulating and putting in the spawn, because it dis- 

 tributes it evenly all over the beds. Then we dig a hole in every 

 open place and cover it up with manure. It should be covered about 

 an inch deep with manure. After it has been spawned, you want 

 to cover it with an inch to an inch and a half of soil; then you want 

 to wait forty days anyhow before you can tell whether you have 

 done anything at all or not. Possibly at the end of forty days you 

 will begin to see little white specks come up all over your beds. 

 Sometimes it don't come in forty days. One man told me a few 

 days ago that he waited fourteen weeks before he ever saw a sign 

 of a mushroom. Sometimes it never comes at all owing to the 

 manure not being in the right condition or the plot not having been 

 kept in the right temperature, either too warm or too cold. It is a 

 pretty delicate matter to have every condition just exactly right. 



There are three kinds of spawn available upon the market: There 

 is the imported English spawn, the American spawn, and there is 

 what is known as the Missouri spawn. These last two are grown 

 in this country. The English spawn is the one that is used more 

 where I live than anything else. I never tried the Missouri. I 

 have tried a little of the American spawn, and I got an exceedingly 

 good crop of very fine mushrooms. Three successive crops grew on 

 the bed and then I quit. I find that the English spawn keeps up a 

 succession of crops better than the American spawn that I have. 

 The temperature at which the building should be maintained is 

 usually, in the early stages — it should be kept at about 65 degrees, 

 although I have grown as fine mushrooms as I have ever grown at 

 all at a temperature of 54 degrees, but you want to keep your tem- 

 perature up a little at the start while the spawn is running. After 



