AN ENCYCLOPADIA OF HORTICULTURE. 
399 
Mushrooms—continued. 
and should be avoided as much as possible; yet it is 
difficult to keep the surface sufficiently moist when fire- 
heat becomes a necessity. Sometimes, when beds have 
become very dry, a good watering has caused a heavy 
crop to spring up; consequently, it is not always an 
injurious practice. The walls of the Mushroom house 
should be frequently syringed, and the floor always kept 
moist, especially when the use of fire-heat is necessary. 
Outside Culture. Growers of Mushrooms on a large scale 
for market, pursue a different system altogether from that 
just described, by forming their beds in ridges outside. 
These ridges are made on a hard piece of ground, and are 
about 3ft. wide at the base, the two sides sloping some- 
2 
Fic. 615. RIDGE MUSHROOM BED. 
what steeply to the top (see Fig. 615). The manure is 
collected from stables, and turned a few times, but it does 
not receive so much preparation as is recommended above 
for indoor beds. It is well trodden, and the sides are 
beaten hard into shape. After spawning, the whole surface 
is covered with about 2in. of adhesive loam, which is 
usually watered, and then beaten with the back of a 
spade. A covering of litter or long straw, varying in 
thickness according to the temperature of the bed, is 
kept over the whole, as shown in the illustration, to 
ward off storms, and preserve, as near as possible, a 
uniform temperature underneath. It is obvious that 
this system involves a considerable amount of labour 
not required with beds inside, in covering and uncover- 
ing for every purpose, yet it is practised most success- 
fully and very extensively by growers for market. 
Another plan, which may be useful for growing Mush- 
rooms in outside beds, and affording them protection 
Fig. 616. PLAN FOR PROTECTING OUTSIDE MUSHROOM BEDS. 
in winter, is shown in Fig. 616. Any sort of frame- 
work might be roughly constructed above the bed on 
ich to place mats or other coverings, and a cord run 
over to fasten them on. Straw screens 
(see Fig. 617), 
Mushrooms—continued. å 
or thatched hurdles, are excellent movable coverings, and; 
being non-conducting, they are well suited for preserv- 
ing an equable temperature, where the admission of light 
is not necessary. A crop of Mushrooms is frequently 
found growing naturally outside in places where they 
are least expected, and such produce is considered 
superior to that obtained under artificial cultivation. 
The insertion of some spawn in an old melon bed, in 
the ordinary turf of a lawn, or in a small quantity of 
manure in any old cool frame, are also methods, at 
times, successfully practised with but little trouble in 
the summer and autumn. 
Preparation of Spawn. What would be more correctly 
termed mycelium, is usually, in the case of the common 
Mushroom, called spawn. It is a dense, white, fibrous sub- 
stance, found in quantity amongst old hotbeds, and in 
places where cattle are kept, these situations being most 
suitable for encouraging its growth. A dormant vitality 
is retained by this spawn for a very long time, if kept 
quite dry; consequently, the soil or manure containing 
it may be collected in a loose state, and scattered on beds 
artificially prepared, at any time. A plan which is, how- 
ever, preferable to this, and the one most generally 
adopted, is the preparation of spawn in what are called 
bricks, from their resemblance in shape to flat bricks. 
These may be purchased from nurserymen, ready for use, 
at any season, about sixteen being considered equal to 
a bushel. Extensive cultivators sometimes prepare their 
own brick spawn; but only a very few, compared with 
the number who purchase it. One of the modes of pre- 
paration is briefly as follows: Fresh horse-droppings are 
collected and mixed with cow-dung, some using an equal 
proportion of each ingredient, and some a less quantity 
of the former, and a little adhesive loam is added to hold 
the other constituents together. The whole is mixed 
with liquid stable manure, until as soft as mortar, when 
it is spread on the floor of an open shed, until sufficiently 
dried to form into bricks of the shape and size desired. 
These should be set on edge, turned frequently, and 
allowed to get about half-dry. Then a hole, about lin. 
square, should be made in one side of the brick, near the 
centre, and filled with good spawn, inclosing it with a 
little of a similar substance to that of which the bricks 
were made. Prepare a bed of fresh horse-dung, about 
Yin. thick, on a dry bottom; build the bricks in a pile 
above it, allowing a space between each two, and cover 
with litter, so as to retain a temperature underneath of, 
as near as possible, 60deg. Under such conditions, the 
spawn will spread itself throughout the whole of each 
brick, and the latter must be frequently examined and 
removed when they are permeated with a white cloudy 
substance, not so far advanced as to show minute threads. 
Good bricks of spawn should be in this condition when 
purchased; otherwise, any part which is too far ad- 
vanced, or, on the other hand, not properly permeated 
with, mycelium, will be useless. When removed from 
the hotbed, the drying process should be e ee 
thoroughly, and the bricks stored in a cool, dry place, 
to arrest any further vegetation, until required for use. 
Other systems of preparing brick spawn are practised, 
differing mainly in details concerning the proportion of 
the different substances which it is advisable to use in 
the preparation and formation of the bricks. 
es. A Mushroom house may either be 
a „ e or one with a lean- to roof against 
the back of a high wall. It should be situated as much 
as possible in the shade, in order that the internal tempe- 
ratures may not be subjected to so much fluctuation, 
by reason of the sun shining on the roof. Hot-water pipes 
should be provided for maintaining the proper tempera- 
in winter; but fire-heat is best done without as 
The interior space may be fitted 
up for beds according to its size and shape, by having 
