THE PREPARATION OF THE MATERIALS. 19 



in an artificially heated house is quite sufficient. Eighteen 

 inches will not be too much for beds made in sheds, 

 though I have seen excellent crops on beds only a foot 

 thick, in common sheds with leaky sides. All beds- made 

 indoors should be flat and firmly beaten down, though the 

 absence of firmness is not, as some think, sufficient to 

 account for want of success. 



I will now quote a few words from Mr. Ayres on 

 other materials for forming mushroom-beds than stable 

 manure. He has given this, like almost every important 

 subject in the range of horticulture, some attention. 

 First among these may be mentioned sawdust which has 

 been used for bedding horses or for riding-school tracks. 

 Such a substance, thoroughly impregnated with urine 

 and mixed with horse-droppings, forms an excellent 

 material for mushroom -beds, especially if mixed with one- 

 fourth of good fibrous loam. Such materials mixed and 

 fermented together, and thrown into a bed a foot or 

 eighteen inches in thickness, according to the temperature 

 of the shed in which the bed is made, will be found to 

 form capital material for growing this esculent, especially 

 as it retains the heat for a long time. The worst of it 

 is that the material is almost valueless after it has served 

 the first purpose; and used as dung upon light land is 

 rather injurious than otherwise. Then you may use leaves 

 and loam, in the proportion of one part of the latter, 

 in a turfy state, to four or five of fermenting leaves. 



