PROTECTION OP PLANTS IN THE OPEN GROUND. 141 



spawn is inserted. After it has begnn to work well, aU that 

 is necessary is to keep off frost, cold winds, and draught. A 

 covering of clean straw is of great service, and it must not be 

 forgotten that moisture is necessary, though too much of it is 

 mischievous. It has been often attempted to spawn a pasture, 

 and it has occasionally answered in part ; but on an occasion 

 when an old and barren mushroom-bed was used as manure 

 on a quarter of a kitchen garden, the production of this 

 valuable esculent was so great as to siu-prise everybody, It 

 continued productive until the severe weather checked it, and 

 for two years it continued to resume its autumnal crop iu 

 perfection. A thick coating of the collected droppings along 

 a few rods by the side of a pasture produced notliing the first 

 season, but yielded fine mushrooms the second year, and con- 

 tinued to do so for years, perhaps till now, for we lost sight 

 of it altogether. Mr. Upright, a gardener in the habit of 

 exliibiting fine vegetables, once exliibited mushrooms in pots, 

 cultivated as we have described, and most extraordinary and 

 crowded specimens some of them were. The fashion of grow- 

 ing on shelves against a waU should always be adopted at the 

 back of a stove, or in any other house that would create a 

 temperature of 55 or 60 degrees, for they would be produced 

 in great plenty at seasons when they woidd be invaluable. 

 Mushroom-houses have been erected on various plans ; but as 

 almost every kind of structure, from a cellar to an attic, from 

 a stove to a shed, can be made available, we should never 

 think of constructing a house on purpose. There is not a 

 cupboard or a corner that may not be appropriated to the 

 culture of this valuable esculent, and it is a shame that any 

 hole or corner should be unproductive. 



PROTECTION OF PLANTS IN THE OPEN GEOUND. 



There are in our English gardens many plants that will, 

 \vith a httle care, brave our EngHsh winters ; but which, if 

 left to the chances of the weather, altogether perish. Some 

 of the roses which are most beautiful are too tender to stand 

 unprotected ; many require the fostering warmth of a south 

 wall, and some even require a distinct covering of some warm 

 kind that shall keep off the severity of some of our frosts. 

 Not a few are tender while young; but when well established 

 will stand tolerably well, although we have had winters and 



