308 THE FLOEAL WOELD AND QAEDEN GUIDE. 



amongst tlie horses, and the heat of their bodies will do instead of 

 hot -water pipes. I am not joking, for I know a place where a stable 

 was fitted with shelves from floor to roof, and these shelves were 

 covered with a curtain. On withdrawing the curtain there was 

 such a display of mushrooms as would startle people unaccustomed 

 to the possibility of growing them in such a way. 



l^ovi let me endeavoiir briefly to advise how best to grow mush- 

 rooms on a small scale. The best way of all is in a dark, warm, 

 unventilated shed, with a brick wall at the back. The droppings 

 should be raked together in ridges every day or two, until there are 

 sufiicient for a bed. While they are accumulating, they should be 

 turned over and drawn up in small heaps or ridges again, every two 

 or three days, to prevent a rapid fermentation. When there are 

 sufficient of these heaps to make a bed, wheel into the shed as much 

 turfy sandy loam as will equal one-third the bulk of the manure, 

 and mix all together, and allow the mixture to remain in one heap 

 for two days, which will cause a gentle fermentation to commence. 

 Provide for the bed some kind of support in front, such as rough 

 boards or turf sods ; make the bed four feet wide, four feet high at 

 the back next the wall, and sloping to two feet in the front. It 

 must be in a condition of equable moisture throughout, neither wet 

 nor dry, and, in the process of making, it must be frequently beaten 

 down to render it quite firm. Were I to make up such a bed, 1 

 should know, by long experience, to what temperature, within a 

 degree or two, it would rise, and I should probably insert the spawn 

 the same day as the bed was made. But I cannot advise a beginner 

 to do this, the safer way is to wait a few days, and then insert a 

 hot-bed thermometer, to ascertain what is the heat inside the bed ; 

 if it is over or under 80°, wait a day or two longer. By that time, 

 if the heat has increased, all is well, you will have a good bed. If it 

 has decreased, you will never get mushrooms, and the best way to 

 proceed is to take it to pieces, mix with it a good fifth or fourth 

 part of fresh droppings — you must always be collecting these, fresh 

 and fresh, and keeping them under cover — and make up the bed as 

 before. The heat will certainly rise now. When at between 70° and 

 80°, insert the spawn in pieces the size of hens' eggs, about six inches 

 apart and three inches deep. I have known one piece of spawn as 

 thick as my fist suffice for a bed five and twenty feet long, and many 

 a good crop have I taken from beds that were never spawned 

 artificially ; for, when properly managed, the material itself is gene- 

 rally rich in spawn, which may be seen running through it in the 

 form of grey filaments. When the spawning has been accomplished, 

 spread over the bed two inches of nice clean sandy loam. 



If the place is warm and rather dry, cover the bed with some 

 clean hay or straw ; if the place is damp and cold, do not put on 

 straw, but lay some rough boards over if you have them, supporting 

 the boards on small flower-pots. I have found that if hay or straw 

 get full of mildew the flavour of the mushrooms is impaired. I 

 never water a mushroom bed until I have seen fruit on it, then if 

 rather dry I water moderately with tepid water. 



Now I will tell you how to make one bed serve all the year round 



