FOREIGN NOTICES. 



practical farmer it is far too elaborate and 

 comprehensive — for the plain reason, that a 

 man who Avorks much, wants his reading 

 put into hand-books or manuals, rather than 

 elaborated into encyclopedias. But there 

 are many to whom the study of agriculture, 



both as a science and a practical art, is pre- 

 senting strong attractions now, in this coun- 

 try, and to such we can recommend this as 

 presenting one of the best works for facili- 

 tating that study, so far as relates to modem 

 British agriculture. 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



Mushroom Spawn. — Mushroom spawn may be 

 made in various ways, and is easily known by its 

 smell and its small tine thread-like and hoary ap- 

 pearance. The smell is just the same as that of 

 the common mushroom. It is to be often met 

 with in manure heaps, and in fields, particularly 

 where hay-ricks have been made, and the old 

 thatch and bottoms have been thrown up into a 

 heap to decay for manure. In heaps of manure 

 that have been thrown out of an old cow-shed, 

 where both horses and cows, &c, run into for 

 shelter; and in the sweepings from horse-mill 

 walks, thrown up into a heap in some dry corner, 

 and allowed to lie for three or four months undis- 

 turbed, plenty of mushroom spawn is pretty cer- 

 tain to be generated. 



If horse droppings, mixed with sandy loam, 

 equal parts, and partly dry, placed in boxes or 

 large flower-pots, with a small bit of good spawn 

 in it three inches below the surface, all jammed 

 in as solid as it can be done, and put in any heated 

 structure, the whole bulk will very soon be found 

 to be the best of spawn, if kept dry for 5 or 6 weeks. 

 Spawn may also be made in this way. Take 

 one-third horse-droppings, one-third cow and sheep 

 dung, and one-third sandy loam; let these ingre- 

 dients be well mixed together, adding as much 

 water as will make the whole something like 

 stiff mortar. Spread the whole mixture out on a 

 level bottom or floor in an open shed, from two 

 and a half to three inches thick, and let it remain 

 in that state a few days to dry; then let it be cut 

 out into pieces about the length of common bricks, 

 but a little wider — say an inch wider; let these 

 pieces be so placed as not to get broken, and 

 when dry enough to be handled about with care, 

 and being a little more than half dry, pierce each 

 brick about half through in two places thus : that 

 is, make the holes about an inch 

 and a half in diameter, and place 

 a small piece of real spawn in 

 each hole, over which a portion 

 of that taken out should be placed , 

 something like sealing it over. After this, let the 

 bricks be so placed as to forward their drying off" 

 as quickly as possible ; and when perfectly dry 

 have ready a quantity of well prepared dry, husky, 



fermenting materials, and place from about six to> 

 nine inches thick on the floor of some rather warm 

 shed, and on this place all the pieces in a regular 

 manner, with open spaces; that is, the pieces ob 

 one row crossing the openings in the row beneath, 

 just as brickmakers arrange their bricks to dry,, 

 and keeping the innocnlated side uppermost, to 

 prevent the spawn falling out, bringing the whole 

 up to a point, so that the stack may not fall 

 about. Then cover the whole with the before 

 mentioned kind of material, so as to give about 

 from 50 to 55 degrees of heat, which will soon 

 cause the spawn to run through the pieces. 

 When this is observed to be the case, let the- 

 whole be stored away in some dry, cold place 

 until required for use. These dry, light, hoary 

 lumps will keep good for years in a dry place, but 

 in a cold moist situation this spawn would soon 

 perish ; and if stored in a warm moist situation, 

 the spawn will commence working or vegetating. 

 T. Weaver, Gardener to the Warden of Winches- 

 ter College. Cottage Gardener. 



Spent Tanner's Bark a good Manure for 

 Strawberries. — Perhaps the following experi- 

 ment with strawberries in tan, which I saw made 

 near Edinburgh, may prove useful. The soil was 

 very light, and appeared unfit for their growth, 

 yet finer fruit or of better flavor I have seldom 

 seen. This was entirely owing to a covering of 

 old tanner's bark, about an inch thick, being ap- 

 plied between the rows. The bark not only kept 

 the ground moist and the fruit clean, but it is the 

 material of all others in which this plant most de- 

 lights. Many persons may have remarked how 

 almost all plants, but particularly the strawberry, 

 will root into the old tan of a bed in which they 

 have been forced, and yet because they know new 

 tan will kill weeds, they do not think it valuable 

 as a manure. In the same garden were beds of 

 strawberries which had not been covered, but 

 after growing and flowering well, these bore no- 

 fruit worth gathering (a very common thing if 

 the soil is too light;) others were almost burnt 

 up, whilst those to which the tan had been ap- 

 plied were luxuriant, and the ground was covered 

 with fine runners fit to plant out, though the fruit 



