164 THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. [CHAP. VL 



directed, only they will be longer before they 

 begin to bear. 



"It is of the utmost importance that every 

 particular in the directions given should be 

 attended to, or the result will most certainly be 

 a failure. The mushroom spawn must also be 

 in good condition ; as, if it be in a bad state, 

 no mushrooms will be produced." 



When mushrooms are grown in a mushroom 

 house, a quantity of fresh stable manure must 

 be thrown together in a heap under cover, and 

 turned over many times in the course of a 

 fortnight or three weeks, till every part has 

 thoroughly fermented. When the dung is 

 thought to be in a fit state, if there are not 

 proper places or boxes, a bed is marked out on 

 the earth forming the floor of the house, twelve 

 or fourteen feet long, and five feet broad. In 

 the bottom of the bed there should be a layer 

 of long fresh stable manure, about four inches 

 thick; and, on this, successive layers of the 

 prepared dung, each beaten flat with the fork, 

 till the bed is about eighteen inches high. In 

 this state it may remain about a fortnight ; and 

 then if the bed be found, on trying it by plung- 

 ing in a stick, to be not too hot, the bricks of 

 spawn should be broken into pieces about an 

 inch and a half or two inches square, and 

 strewed over the bed at about nine inches 

 apart, each piece of spawn being buried by 

 raising up a little of the dung and inserting it. 

 After this the surface of the bed is beaten flat 

 with a spade, and the whole is covered w T ith 

 mould, that of a loamy nature being preferred. 



