236 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



strictly to the following directions. Let fresh horse 

 droppings be procured from the stables each day, in quan- 

 tity not less, perhaps, than a good barrow load ; to every 

 barrow load of droppings add about the same weight of 

 fresh loam from a pasture or sod land, or soil of any kind, 

 in fact, that has not been manured the' clanger of old 

 manured soil being that it may contain spurious fungi. 

 Let the droppings and soil be mixed together, day by 

 day, as the droppings can be procured ; if they can be 

 had all at once, in quantity enough, so much the better. 

 Let the heap be turned every day, so that it is not 

 allowed to heat violently, until you have got quantity 

 enough to form the bed of the dimensions required. Be 

 careful that your heap is under cover, so that it cannot 

 possibly get wet. 



The most convenient size for a bed is from four to five 

 feet in width, and if the Mushrooms are wanted in quan- 

 tity, it is the plan most economical of space to start on 

 the floor of the house with the first bed, the additional ones 

 to be formed of shelving, four feet wide by ten inches deep, 

 raised one above another, something like the berths in a 

 steamboat. Now, from the prepared heap of droppings and 

 soil, spread over the bed a thin layer ; pound this firmly 

 down with a brick ; then another layer, pounded down as 

 before, and so on until it reaches a depth of eight inches. 

 Be careful that it be no more nor less than eight inches ; 

 more would cause the mass to heat too violently, while 

 less is hardly enough. Into this bed plunge a thermometer; 

 in a day or two the bed will heat so that it will run up to 

 100 degrees or over, and as soon as it declines to ninety- 

 five or ninety, take a dibber or sharp stick and make holes 

 all over the bed, at the distance of about twelve inches each 

 way, to about half the depth of the bed. Into each hole 

 put a piece of spawn of the size of a hen's egg or so, cov- 

 ering up the hole again with the compost, so that it will 

 present the same level, firm surface as before the spawn was 



