MUS 



[ 020 ] 



MUS 



heat is thus caused, and the produce is 

 often extraordinarily abundant, fre- 

 quently two bushels, from a frame ten 

 feet by six, and mushrooms have been 

 produced two pounds in weight. 



Hampers or boxes containing about 

 four inches depth of fresh, dry stable- 

 dung, 01% in preference, of a mixture of 

 three barrow-loads of horse -dung, and 

 one perfectly dry cow-dung, well pressed 

 in, may be set in some situation, where 

 neither damp nor frost can enter. After 

 two or three days, or as soon as heat is 

 generated, the spawn may be inserted, 

 a mushroom brick is to be broken into 

 three equal parts, and each fragment 

 to be laid four inches asunder, on the 

 surface of the dung ; after six days, an 

 inch-and-a-half depth of fresh dung to 

 be beaten down as before. In the 

 course of a fortnight, or as soon as it 

 is found that the spawn has run nearly 

 through the whole of the dung, fine 

 earth must be applied two inches-and- 

 a-half thick, and the surface made level. 

 In five or six weeks the mushrooms 

 will begin to come up, and if the mould 

 appear dry, may then be gently watered ; 

 the water being slightly heated. Each 

 box will continue in production six or 

 eight weeks. 



Mr. J. Oldaker, late gardener to the 

 Emperor of Russia, introduced a house 



purposely constructed for the growth 

 of the mushroom. The house is found 

 of great use in storing brocoli during 



the winter. It is usually built against 

 the back wall of a forcing-house, as in 

 the annexed plan, but if built uncon- 

 nected with another building, the only 

 necessary alteration, is to have a hipped 

 instead of a lean-to roof. The outside 

 wall, G H., should be eight feet-and-a- 

 half high for four heights, the width 

 ten feet within the Avails, which is most 

 convenient, as it admit shelves three 

 feet-and-a-half wide on each side, and 

 a space up the middle three feet wide, 

 for a double flue, and wall upon it. 



When the outside of the house is 

 finished, a floor or ceiling is made over 

 it, as high as the top of the outside 

 walls, of boards one inch thick, and 

 plastered on the upper side, e c, with 

 road sand, well wrought together, an 

 inch thick ; square trunks,/, being left 

 in the ceiling, nine inches in diameter, 

 up the middle of the house, at six feet 

 apart, with slides, s, to ventilate with 

 when necessary. 



Two single brick walls, v r, each 

 five bricks high, are then to be erected 

 at three feet-and-a-half from the out- 

 side walls, to hold up the sides of the 

 floor beds, a a, and form at the same time 

 one side of the air flues. Upon these 

 walls, v v, are to be laid planks four 

 inches-and-a-half wide, and three inches 

 thick, in which are to be mortised the 

 standards, I /r, which support the shelves. 

 These standards to be three inches-and- 

 a-half square, and four feet-and-a-hnlf 

 asunder, fastened at the top, k /.-, into 

 the ceiling. The cross bearers, i i, i i, 

 which support the shelves, o o, must be 

 mortised into the bearers and into the 

 walls ; the first set of bearers being 

 two feet from the floor, and each suc- 

 ceeding one to be at the same distance 

 from the one below it. The shelves, 

 o o, are to be of boards one inch and a 

 half thick ; each shelf having a ledge 

 in front, of boards one inch thick and 

 eight inches deep, to support the front 

 of the beds, fastened outside the stand- 

 ards. The flue to commence at the 

 end of the house next the door, and 

 running the whole length, to return 

 back parallel, and communicate with 

 the chimney ; the walls of the insides to 

 be the height of four bricks laid flat, 

 and six inches wide ; this will allow a 



