A CHEAP MUSHROOM HOUSE. 225 



ratus, a house that will answer for the purpose can be 

 constructed at a small cost. 



A convenient form is built about the same as a nar- 

 row even-span greenhouse, except that there is but little 

 glass in the roof and gables. Use posts about nine feet 

 long, and having made an excavation three and one-half 

 feet deep, twelve feet wide and of the desired length, set 

 them around it about four feet apart, and so that they 

 will be two feet in the ground. Double board upon the 

 outside of the posts, and complete the gables and roof 

 the same as if for a barn. A still cheaper roof can be 

 constructed by using boards covered with hay. A small 

 sash every fifteen feet along the roof will give all the 

 light needed to handle the crop. Bank the excavated 

 soil against the outside of the walls, up to the level of the 

 plate. Constructed in this way there will be room for 

 three beds, one above the other along each wall, with a 

 three-foot walk in the center. The bottom tier of beds 

 should be made on the floor, and if the others are placed 

 thirty inches apart, it will give space for the making of 

 the beds and caring for the crop. With the walls well 

 banked, the necessary heat can be provided by four or 

 five one and one-half-inch hot water pipes. 



If a house twenty feet wide is preferred, it should, 

 in addition to the three tiers of beds along each side, 

 have three or four beds six feet wide in a rack through 

 the center of the house. 



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