114 FORCING MUSHROOMS. 



Mushrooms may be obtained at any season of the year, 

 by a proper regulation of the time and manner of forming 

 the beds. A good crop is sometimes collected without 

 making a bed on purpose, by introducing lumps of spawn 

 into the top mould of old hot-beds. 



The methods of procuring and propagating spawn, and 

 of forming Mushroom beds, are numerous. Indigenous 

 spawn may be collected in pasture lands in September and 

 October, or it may be found in its strength and purity in 

 the paths of mills worked by horses, or in any other horse- 

 walks under shelter ; it is frequently found in old hot-beds 

 and dunghills, in the summer season, and Mushrooms of 

 good quality m;iy often be seen beginning to form themselves 

 on the surface, like large peas ; when these are observed, it 

 is time to take out the spawn, which is generally in hard dry 

 lumps of dung, the spawn having the appearance of whitish 

 coarse pieces of thread. The true sort has exactly the 

 smell of a Mushroom. If spawn thus collected, be required 

 for immediate use, it may be planted iri the beds at once, or 

 it will keep three or four years, if laid to dry with the earth 

 adhering to it, and afterwards placed in a warm dry shed, 

 where there is a current of air ; but if it be not completely 

 dried, the spawn will exhacst itself or perish, as it will not 

 bear the extremes of heat, cold, or moisture. 



Such of my readers as may have hitherto been un- 

 acquainted with the cultivation of Mushrooms, must per- 

 ceive, from the preceding remarks, that a Mushroom bed is 

 simply a heap of animal dung and earth, so tempered as to 

 be capable of producing and preserving spawn ; but in order 

 to have fruitful spawn at all times, it should be so formed as 

 to be always at command. To this end, a quantity of fresh 

 hor^e droppings mixed with short litter, shouldbe collected j 

 add to this one-third of cow dun*g, and a small portion of 

 good earth, to cement it together ; mash the whole into a 

 thin compost, like grafting clay ; then form it in the shape 

 of bricks, which being done, set them on edge, arid frequent- 

 ly turn them until half dry ; then with a dibble make one or 

 two holes in each brick, and insert in each hole a piece of 

 spawn the size of an egg: the bricks should then be laid 



