No. 1. 



Cultivation of Mushrooms. — London Breweries. 



29 



as to the cleanness of our seed. By never 

 sowing seed with cliess among it, we can 

 escape the loss we sulTer from tiiis weed ; 

 but all grain growers must be aware how 

 much cleaning, and what care is requisite 

 to separate the chess from the wheat. Once 

 introduced into a ftrm, it may become im- 

 possible to eradicate it. C. F. 



Cultivation of Mushrooms. 



RoswELL L. Colt, of Paterson, N. J., in 

 a communication to the American Agricul- 

 turist, says, "I have two houses in which I 

 have raised them, one built expressly for the 

 purpose, 50 feet long, 14 wide, 9 high, plas- 

 tered inside, with a flue from a stove run- 

 ning on the ground througli the centre. On 

 the top of the flue are hollow tiles for the 

 purpose of holding water and keeping the 

 room moist. I have two tiers of beds on 

 each side of the house, one over the other, 

 three feet apart and five feet wide. We 

 first fill each bed with pure horse dung, 

 with as little straw as possible — say one foot 

 deep ; we then put on three inches of rich 

 black mould ; in this earth we plant the 

 spawn of the mushroom broadcast. That 

 from England comes in blocks like brick. 

 This is broken up into pieces the size of a 

 walnut, and planted about three or four 

 -inches apart. The best time to make the 

 beds is in October and November. Keep 

 the house warm ; about 65 degrees, and 

 damp and dark, and cover the beds with hay 

 three inches deep. The mushrooms will be 

 ready to pick in about a month, and will con 

 tinue until August, or longer; but in very 

 warm weather they get covered with bugs. 

 The other house is smaller, and I heat it 

 with a large pile of horse manure, which 

 being kept wet my gardener thinks raises 

 the best mushrooms." 



London Breweries. 



A CORRESPONDENT of SmiiJis Weekly 

 Volume, now in Europe, says, under date of 

 May, 1845, " Barclay's Brewery, celebrated 

 the world over, is such a curiosity that I 

 have been tempted to visit it under favour 

 of an introduction from one of the family 

 owning it. The whole establishment covers 

 1.5 acres; we saw 180 vats, each containing 

 from 1100 to 3000 barrels; they are 33 feet 

 in height ; one 36 feet across at the top, the 

 bottom 43"feet, which had in it the enormous 

 amount of 3,500 hundred barrels; the weight 

 of iron in the hoops is seventeen tons, the 

 eight bottom ones weighing no less than 

 one ton four hundred weight; it is large 

 enough to drive a carriage and six horses 



into; it will contain 4000 barrels of impe- 

 rial stout, and its liipiid treasure is worth 

 eighty thousand dollars ! Father Mathew'a 

 gimlet would less-en its value. There are 

 stables for 187 of the enormous horses em- 

 ployed for delivery, each horse worth $300; 

 one little fellow we measured, and found 

 his height to be full 18 hands, or six feet; a 

 steam engine finds full employment in break- 

 ing up their food. 



" In one place we saw men in vats hand- 

 ling the hot hops, as nearly naked as sav- 

 ages. In one vat were 1360 bushels of malt; 

 one copper boiler is so large that forty-five 

 men have dined in it comfortably! it will 

 contain 4,200 barrels of beer. Here are 

 conduits half a mile in length, rail-roads, 

 hoppers, steam engines, &c., enough to con- 

 fuse one. Thirty tons of coal a day are 

 consumed. The malt-bins will contain six- 

 teen hundred thousand bushels, worth two 

 millions and a quarter of dollars; si.xty great 

 cats are kept to destroy the mice. Fifteen 

 hundred barrels of ale are made daily; it is 

 cooled in summer by curious refrigerators. 

 There is even a burying-ground for the men 

 who die, but for this there is no longer room ; 

 the space is wanted, the temperance men 

 would say, to make poison for others. The 

 brewery was burnt down in 1832, but pre- 

 cautions are now taken so that the whqle 

 can be flooded in a very short time. To 

 look at the Thames water you would not 

 say it was a desirable article to drink, but 

 the people here seem infatuated with beer ; 

 wherever you go you see huge signs, 'Tru- 

 man, Hanbury, and Buxton's Entire,' and 

 so of other brewers, while the beer is on 

 every dinner table ; and beer money is al- 

 lowed to servants and soldiers, whether they 

 spend it for that purpose or not, it is so set- 

 tled in the contract." 



Among many native Western fruits of 

 value, there is an apple, originated among 

 the Shakers, near Lebanon, Ohio, called the 

 Stump apple. This very fine and large 

 apple was exhibited at the last fall show of 

 the Cincinnati Horticultural Society. For 

 the time it lasts, — from the earliest of the 

 late apples to about November, — it is in 

 point of good flavor, cooking qualities, and 

 its admirable adaptation for drying for sauce, 

 one of our best Western fruits. The tree 

 is remarkably productive, and the fruit main- 

 tains its large size generally throughout. — 

 Western Farmer and Gardener. 



It- is said the water in which potatoes have 

 been boiled, sprinkled over grain, plants, &c., 

 destroys all insects in every stage of their 

 existence, from the egg to the fly. 



