OCT.] THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 539 



MUSHROOMS. 



Having the dung for the mushroom bed duly prepared, and the 

 spawn in readinesss, as advised in September, you should in the 

 first week, or rather about the first day of this month, begin to make 

 the bed. 



With respect to the situation in which to make the bed, it should 

 be in an elevated part of the hot-bed yard, or in some dry and well 

 sheltered place. The bed ought to be made entirely on the surface 

 of the ground, rather than forming a shallow trench in which to 

 make the bottom part, as practised by some ; for by the former 

 method it can be spawned quite to the bottom, and the lower part 

 will not be chilled by standing water in cold or wet weather, and 

 particularly as the part sunk in the ground may be considered as 

 totally useless. 



The width of the bed at bottom should be from three to four feet, 

 and any length you please, in proportion to the quantity of mush- 

 rooms required, or the quantity of spawn with which you are pro- 

 vided. 



Being furnished with a three tined fork, begin to make the bed by 

 shaking some of the longest of the prepared dung evenly all along 

 the bottom four or five inches thick ; then take the dung in general 

 as it comes and work it into the bed, gradually narrowing it upwards, 

 shaking and mixing the dung as you proceed and beating it down 

 with the fork layer by layer : proceed in this manner, still drawing 

 in the sides of the bed till it terminates in a narrow ridge at top, so 

 that the bed may be formed like the roof of a house : be careful that 

 each end shall be sloped in like manner as the sides, and that all 

 parts are made full and firm by beating with a fork as you proceed, 

 to preserve uniformity and to prevent its settling down too much in 

 an unequal manner : it should be full three or three and a half feet 

 perpendicular height when settled. 



When the bed is finished, it should be covered with long straw, 

 laid on neatly to keep out wet, and also to prevent its drying ; in 

 this state it is to remain about ten or twelve days, by which time it 

 will be in a fit condition to be spawned ; but to ascertain the state of 

 the bed with the greater certainty, put in a few long sharp-pointed 

 sticks into several parts thereof, pull out and feel these occasionally, 

 carefully attending to the progress of its fermentation, and when you 

 find the heat on the decline, and temperate, that is the time to put 

 in the spawn ; for a violent heat, as well as too much wet, would in- 

 evitably destroy it. 



The bed being in a proper temperature, the covering of straw 

 should be taken off and the sides made smooth and even; then lay 

 all over the bed about an inch thick of light rich earth, not wet. In 

 this the spawn is to be planted in rows six inches asunder along the 

 sides and ends, making the first or lowest row six inches from the 

 surface of the ground, and proceeding upwards row by row to the 

 top, observing to place the pieces of spawn about six inches asunder, 

 and so far in as to touch the surface of the dung. This done, lay 



