423 GARDEN MANAGESIEXT. 



manner. Mushroom-beds may be made at this time out of doors : they will 

 come into bearing in August. Horse-droppings, or good short stable-dung, 

 mixed with one-third loamy soil, and well worked together till it gives a 

 gentle heat, I have found best for making the bed : it must not be heaped up 

 too high, or in too great a body, or it is apt to ferment too violently. Some 

 old cultivators, who have no idea of the use of a thermometer, are very 

 successful in the culture of the mushroom, and inform us that the best time 

 to spawn a bed is when it feels of a temperature equal to that of newly-drawn 

 milk. Certainly I believe a proper temperature at the time of spawning is of 

 the first importance ; if too cold, the spawn will not work ; too great heat 

 destroys it at once : 80° or 85°, I think, ought to be the maximum, and 65° 

 the minimum point. Let the bed be firmly put together in a ridge, or conical 

 or pyramidal form, of sufficient pitch to prevent water getting into it : a 

 trench dug round it will take the rain. The bed must be protected at all 

 times from rain before spawning and before casing, and afterwards covered 

 with about a foot of clean straw, and this, again, with something to keep it 

 together ; mats, netting, sticks, or hurdles, will do, although garden-mats 

 are preferable. Beds previously made should be looked over occasionally, 

 and, if dry, watered very gently with water equal at least in temnerature to 

 that of the atmosphere. 



1281. Many cultivators make use of lawn-mowings for lining hotbeds. Now, 

 although it may be useful in a certain manner, it is far from being a proper 

 material : it heats too violently, and the roots of plants recoil from it ; it also 

 has the very disagi'eeable property of breeding swarms of insects ; it is, 

 therefore, advisable to avoid using it about frames ; it may be used more 

 advantageously as mulch for kitchen crops, strawberries, or ridge cucumbers 

 or melons ; laid on the surface of the ground, and spread out, it is soon 

 dried, and loses its power of doing harm. Capsicums, chillies, egg-plants, 

 &c., should be re-potted into larger pots. This will probably be their final 

 shift. They may then be plunged in a moderate heat, and as they grow 

 taller, the frame can be lifted on bricks or flowerpots, working the linings up 

 to it. Many tender plants may be treated in the same way, and thus 

 prepared for autumn decoration of the conservatory. 



1282. Collecting and preparing manure, and transporting it where it is wanted, 

 are operations that should be attended to when other operations become 

 impossible. The waste, not only of liquid, but solid manure, in this country, 

 is enormous. I wish to impress upon all the important fact that everything 

 that has ever been endowed with life, and all the excrements proceeding from 

 them, are available for manure. Their nature, qualities, influence, and the 

 mode of their application, may be endlessly varied ; but all alike possess a 

 power of enriching the earth. The hard texture of bone or wood fibre, for 

 instance, may render it desirable to subject them to chemical action, or th9 

 influence of fire, to render them more speedily available to the wants of plants ; 

 but these hard substances possess the elements of plant-food in common with 

 the soft constituents of plants and animals. The influence of sulphuric acid 



