THE MUSHROOM FAMILY. 315 



then taken and placed in alternate rows of heated horse-drop- 

 pings, and as each brick is added a hole or two is made in it 

 with a pointed stick, and the cavity filled up with previously 

 made and tested spawn. The bricks should not touch each 

 other ; and when a stack has been made, cover the whole 

 with a layer of the heated droppings, which by gently heating 

 the cakes causes them to be completely pervaded with myce- 

 lium. Spawn may be purchased from any seedsman, that known 

 as the Milltrack or the French Spawn being considered the 

 best. Tons of this esculent are grown in the caves or quarries 

 which undermine Paris ; and in this country they are largely 

 grown in cellars, mushroom-houses, and by the London market- 

 gardeners in open-air beds made in August, and covered with 

 straw and mats. In Italy an edible species is cultivated by 

 placing coffee-grounds in a cellar where a moderately genial 

 temperature is kept up. This coffee-refuse soon becomes per- 

 meated by mycelium, and seems to furnish it with the requisite 

 food for its full development. 



Spawn may be made in a covered and dry, but not too airy, 

 situation. The corner of a barn, or that of an out-house or 

 shed, or even of a stable, are favourable places for its develop- 

 ment. The bed in which it is to be generated should be made 

 early in May, and the following are the materials employed, 

 which may be reduced to smaller proportions, if necessary : 

 fifty-six barrow-loads of fresh horse-dung, six barrow-loads of 

 good garden soil, and one barrow-load of fresh wood-ashes, 

 which have not been wet, with half a barrow-load of pigeon's- 

 dung fresh from the pigeon-house : double the quantity of the 

 latter must be used if it be of the preceding year. The whole 

 should be watered lightly with cow's urine or water from the 

 manure-heap. When the mixture has been properly made, 

 after various turnings it should be placed to the depth of a 

 foot along a wall : the width may be left out of the question, 

 but it requires a certain bulk in order that it may heat gently. 

 The bed must be trodden down firmly, and, at the end of ten 

 days, the consolidating process must be repeated, and ought to 

 be continued two or three times a-week until early in Septem- 

 ber. The manure, thus prepared, is cut with a sharp spade 

 into squares of about a foot each. These are then left to dry 

 in a granary, or any other airy place from which sunshine and, 

 above all, damp are excluded. These bricks are placed on 

 their sides, and turned from time to time. Spawn thus made 

 will keep good from ten to twelve years, if it is placed in a dry 

 position, free from frost. Sometimes, even in the granary in 

 which the spawn is dried, large quantities of Mushrooms may 



