VEGETABLES MUSHROOM. 239 



cut two inches thick, placing the grassy side downward. 

 This he has found in his experience to be the best method, 

 which his extraordinary success seems to well attest. 



Although spawn is procurable at cheap rates in all hor- 

 ticultural stores, yet to such as desire to make it them- 

 selves I give the following brief directions. Take equal 

 portions of horse droppings, cow dung and fresh loam ; 

 mix the whole thoroughly together, as you would make 

 mortar ; then form it into cakes about the size of large 

 bricks ; place these on edge, under cover, until they be- 

 come half dry ; then insert into each a piece of spawn 

 half an inch or so square; let the bricks remain until they 

 are quite dry. Then spread about eight inches of horse 

 dung over the floor of the shed, on .which build the bricks 

 in a pile three feet wide by three feet high, keeping the 

 side in which the spawn has been put uppermost ; then 

 cover them over with sufficient stable manure, so as to 

 give a gentle heat through the whole. In two or three 

 weeks the spawn will have spread itself through the 

 whole mass of each brick. They are then removed to a 

 dry place, and will retain their vital properties for many 

 years. There is not the least question that the cultivation 

 of Mushrooms for market, forced in the manner detailed, 

 will give a larger profit for the 1-ibor and capital invested 

 than that from any other vegetable. The supply has 

 never yet been half enough, and sellers have had prices 

 almost pretty much as they pleased. 



I know of no house in this vicinity there are some, I 

 believe, in Canada that have been especially erected for 

 the purpose, and the markets have been supplied from 

 beds formed in out-of-the-way corners, giving only an 

 uncertain and irregular supply, very discouraging to buy- 

 ers. I have no doubt whatever that Mushroom houses, 

 roughly built, but exclusively devoted to that purpose, 

 would, in the vicinity of any of our large cities, pay a 

 profit of thirty per cent, per annum on cost of construe- 



