iSyi.] MUSHROOM -GROWING. 129 



bert, Turner's Marion, Kirtland's Rev, Geo. Jeans, Hooper's Victory, Turner's 

 Edwin, Harris's Excelsior, Harris's Genevieve, Turner's President, Haclean's John 

 Ball,' Hooper's Lady Craven, Haclean's Annie, Haclean's Constance, Turner's 

 Cristabel. John Ball. 



[We gladly give these remarks and lists a place in our pages, as we desire to 

 aid in reviving a taste for these now rather neglected beauties. — Ed.] 



MUSH ROOM- GROWING. 



I BEG to lay before the readers of your valuable magazine a short 

 account of a plan by which I have known Mushrooms successfully 

 grown for the last four years. It may be considered as being after 

 the style of the French cave-system, described at length by some hor- 

 ticultural writers lately; but, so far as I am aware, it was adopted, 

 through suitability of circumstances, in a gentleman's place in one of 

 the midland counties many years before. The floor of a potting-shed, 

 which is 10 feet broad by about 40 feet long, was dug out to a depth 

 of about 7 feet ; it was of a rocky nature, on good natural drainage, 

 and a wooden floor was substituted, which left underneath a chamber 

 of which you may have an idea. In forming this sunk apart- 

 ment, three suitable openings were left on its top, at distances 

 apart, and by these the prepared manure is taken in for the beds, as 

 well as the spent material taken out to clear the way. On the flat 

 below, six good-sized Mushroom-beds are made up in it annually, 

 which, with the assistance of other two beds made up in an adjoining 

 storeroom, produce a sufficient supply of Mushrooms to serve the 

 family all the year round, without any other artificial heat, or, I may 

 say, any great trouble. The beds are made up according to the usual 

 directions given for the purpose, only in collecting the manure for use 

 it is found to be quite unnecessary to gather it so very free from straw, 

 and in getting it ready into dry condition afterwards ; it is considered 

 better (and I adopt a similar method) to allow it to ferment in large 

 heaps together for a few days at a time, and then turning it out and 

 repeating the same process for a few times, mixing it perhaps with 

 some dry earth at hand in preference to spreading it out thinly and 

 turning it over every morning, as is so frequently done. After the 

 beds have been made up, and their heat falls to a little below 80°, it 

 is then considered time the spawn was put in. In a few days after 

 this operation is performed, a coating of common soil 2 inches thick 

 is put over the beds, and smoothed down firmly with the back of the 

 spade. In a few days, when the heat of the beds has fallen a few 

 degrees lower, a good covering of soft hay is placed over them (or, 



