138 MARKET GARDENING. 



of a walnut, and placed as hereinafter directed. The 

 English spawn is the most reliable when the work is 

 performed by amateurs. With the French spawn the 

 flakes about the size of a silver dollar should be inserted 

 edgeways into the beds, the outer edge just covered from 

 sight. The operation of spawning is a very important 

 one, the aim being to secure a uniform development of 

 spawn filaments throughout the bed. When this growth 

 of white fiber fails to appear after three weeks' time, the 

 bed should be broken up and remade with an addition 

 of one-third unfermented dung to give it heat again. 

 Any good loamy soil is suitable for covering the beds 

 after the spawn has started to grow. In Paris the 

 beds are generally covered with two inches of white lime- 

 stone soil, not through choice, but through convenience, 

 and it does as well as anything else. 



Location of Mushroom Beds. Mushrooms may 

 be grown in greenhouses any month of the year, and in 

 graperies, pits, sheds, cellars and stables from April to 

 October. They may also be grown on shelves or on the 

 floor of any of these places. A novice in mushroom cul- 

 ture may, with little trouble and comparatively no ex- 

 pense, try his apprentice hand at cultivation in half bar- 

 rels kept in a dark shed or cellar, and we would advise 

 the following course for such a trial : Procure an empty 

 whiskey or vinegar barrel with a firm head and bottom, 

 and saw it in half. Pick out the best quality of unfer- 

 mented stable manure obtainable, and thoroughly mix 

 with one-fourth part good friable loam, pile the mass 

 compactly, and tramp down and cover with ordinary 

 stable manure for a blanket. At the end of a week 

 remove the covering and turn the mixture, pile it up 

 again and blanket for two or three days, then half fill . 

 the tubs or barrels with the manure. Upon the top 

 surface lay pieces of spawn the size of a walnut at inter- 

 vals of three inches apart, and add sufficient of the 



