372 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



are continually accounts of deaths caused by 

 these vegetables. 



So much are mushrooms now in request, 

 that we cannot content ourselves with mush- 

 room beds only, but we have mushroom 

 houses also. The author, on referring to his 

 diary of November the fourteenth, finds a 

 memorandum that would have puzzled our 

 forefathers. 



"While gathering a mushroom, the ladder 

 slipped and I was precipitated to the ground, 

 but without injury." 



The mushrooms in the house alluded to, 

 were growing on beds supported one over the 

 other by broad shelves of elm planks, with 

 a deep ledge to keep up the earth; but from 

 the necessary fermentation of the manure, 

 the planks are liable to rot, therefore, where 

 durability is required, large flag-stones should 

 be substituted, and supported by iron props 

 or brackets. Should stone be found too cool 

 for the spawn, any slight boards that are not 

 painted may be laid on it. As light is not 

 necessary for the growth of this high-fla- 

 voured vegetable, almost every country-seat 

 may furnish an outhouse for the purpose of 

 obtaining mushrooms at all seasons, and of a 

 safe quality. 



