172 GARDENING FOR PROFIT. 



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 danger 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 4 to 5 feet in 

 width, and if the Mushrooms are wanted in quantity, 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, 4 feet wide by 10 inches deep, raised 

 one above another, something like the berths in a steam- 

 boat. Now, from the prepared heap of droppings and 

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

 do\\ r n with a brick ; then another layer, pounded down as 

 before, and so on until it reaches a depth of 8 inches. Be 

 careful that it be no more nor less than 8 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 or over, and as soon as it declines to 95 or 90, take a 

 dibber or sharp stick and make holes all over the bed, at 

 the distance of about 12 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, covering up the hole again 

 with the compost, so that it will present the same level firm 



