FORCING THE MUSHROOM IN BRITISH GARDENS. 525 



stable where the horses are fed on hay and corn, but not on green food. 

 Spread the manure on the floor of the cellar about four inches deep, 

 and beat it firmly down with a mallet. After a few days repeat this 

 operation, and again do so at intervals, till the bed becomes about 

 fourteen inches deep, and of such a breadth as may be most convenient. 

 To ascertain the degree of heat, put two or three sharp-pointed sticks 

 into the bed, and when, upon being drawn out the next day, they feel 

 about milk-warm, or between 80 or 90, it is time to put in the mush- 

 room spawn. Observe, however, that when this operation is performed, 

 the heat should be rather on the decline than on the increase. 



Having purchased or otherwise procured the spawn, break it into 

 pieces about the size of a hen's egg. Place the pieces all over the bed, 

 about a foot apart, and two inches below the surface. Beat the whole 

 down hard. Be careful not to let the heat increase above the degree 

 mentioned above, otherwise the spawn will be destroyed, and the bed 

 muse be stocked again with fresh spawn. Indeed, for security's sake, 

 it is always best to repeat the spawning when the heat is on the decline. 

 After all danger of increased heat is past, cover the bed with light 

 soil about two inches deep, then beat it down hard. Mushrooms 

 always do best in a firm hard soil : however hard, they will find their 

 way through it. They have even been known to raise the pavement 

 of a cellar floor. 



Management of the Bed. Examine the sticks which were originally 

 placed in the bed ; if they are lukewarm all is right. A few days 

 afterwards cover the bed with hay or straw ; but if it increases the 

 heat, remove it for a time. If the place is warm and dark this covering 

 may be dispensed with. In five or six weeks the mushrooms ought to 

 appear. A gentle watering now and then will hasten their growth ; 

 but too much will cause the spawn to rot, and then, of course, the bed 

 will be unproductive, whereas it ought to produce for five or six weeks. 



Mushroom spawn, planted in loam and dung, or in either, and 

 screened from sun and rain in summer, will produce this vegetable in 

 abundance ; and the same materials will produce the same effect in win- 

 ter under favourable circumstances, such as being placed in boxes or 

 baskets in a stable or warm cellar. Mushrooms may be grown remark- 

 ably well on dung -beds, covered with frames, having thatched hurdles 

 or boards instead of glass ; the surface of the bed being covered 

 with hay, litter, or dried shorn grass. 



Half- dried droppings of highly-fed horses, good spawn, and a gentle 

 moist atmosphere, are the principal things to be attended to in culti- 

 vating the mushroom. 



In gathering mushrooms for present use, they may be cut ; but if 

 they are to be kept a few days, they must be got with the stem entire, 

 which is easily done by slipping them olf with a gentle twist. 



The duration of a crop of mushrooms varies from three to six 

 months, so that it is always safe to make up a bed or a couple of shelves 

 every three or four months. 



The subject of mushroom culture is very fully treated of in 'Mush- 

 room Culture,' published by Warne. 



