36 MUSHROOM CULTURE. 



The ordinary spawn bricks should be broken into pieces, 

 say from about the size of walnuts to that of eggs ; they 

 do not break up into regular portions. Spawn in the more 

 natural form in which we take it from the old beds, and 

 in which it is used by the French, is ready to be inserted 

 Hto the bed without any further manipulation. I be- 

 lieve this kind of spawn spreads more rapidly through 

 the beds than our own brick spawn, and is, on the 

 whole, much more desirable. As it is usually very 

 dry it is a good plan to place some of it in the mush- 

 room-house a few days before spawning, so that it may 

 begin to absorb moisture. A dark place in a warm 

 house, or gentle hotbed, would do as well, but in no case 

 should it be done more than three days before spawn- 

 ing time. At spawning this might with advantage be 

 mixed with some that has not gone through this process. 

 A bushel of the ordinary brick spawn will suffice to 

 spawn about one hundred square feet. All spawn 

 should be inserted near the surface, just buried in the 

 materials of which the bed is made. The thin flakes of 

 spawn which the French use, and which are usually 

 nearly the length and breadth of the open hand, are 

 generally inserted into the bed edgeways, or in a direction 

 slanting upwards, so that while one edge of the piece is 

 buried three or four inches in the bed, the other is seen 

 peeping through at the surface. Thus each flake of spawn 

 is exposed to a slight difference of temperature, aad, being 



