CULTIVATION OF MUSHROOMS. 



249 



During the four or five weeks the manure is turned four or five 

 times. The turning occurs when the temperature has arisen to such 

 a point as to require it. 



Another method, used by some, might be called a rapid process of curing. 

 According to this, the time for curing the manure extends over a 

 period of about a week, or five to ten days. The material is piled 

 in such a way as to cause rapid fermentation and rapid rising of 

 temperature, the material sometimes requiring to be turned every 

 day or two, sometimes twice a day, in order to lower the tempera- 

 ture and prevent the material from burning or drying out. Between 



Figure 231. View in mushroom house (L. S. Bigony's Mushroom Plant, Lans- 

 dale, Pa.), showing alley and side tier of beds. Copyright. 



this rapid process of curing, and the slow process of curing, the 

 practice may extend so that, according to the method of different 

 operators, the period of curing extends from one week to a month 

 or five weeks. 



The third method oj curing consists in putting the material at once 

 into the beds before curing, and mixing in with the manure, as it is 

 placed in the bed, about one part of loam or garden soil to four or 

 five parts of the fresh manure. The material is then left in this 

 condition to cure without changing or turning, the temperature ris- 

 ing perhaps not above 130 F. With some experience in determin- 

 ing the firmness with which the bed should be made to prevent a too 

 high rise of temperature, this practice might prove to be successful. 



