V. MUSHROOM. 



bed in a year. To have it in winter, preserve it precisely 

 like marjoram (which see), and, instead of chopping it for 

 sauce, crumble it between your fingers. 



163. MUSHROOM. This is one of a numerous tribe 

 of funguses ; but it is the only one that is cultivated for 

 culinary purposes, and this one is scarcely ever seen in 

 any gardens but those of noblemen, or gentlemen of for- 

 tune. In their gardens it is cultivated in order to be had 

 at all times of the year, for every body knows, that, in most 

 parts of England, it comes up spontaneously in the mea- 

 dows and elsewhere. It is cultivated no how but in hot- 

 beds ; but there in two distinct ways. The first, is, on hot- 

 beds out of doors, and the hot-bed is made and managed 

 in the manner that I will now describe. Take stable 

 dung that is not fresh and fiery, or, if you have no other, 

 mix with it an equal quantity of old hot-bed lining, throw 

 it together in along ridge, where rains will not fall on it, 

 to ferment, and, in about three weeks it will be ready for 

 use. Then take and mark out the outline of the base of 

 your bed, just as I directed in my instructions about hot- 

 beds in Chapter III.'; but, as this one is to go up in a 

 sloping direction on both sides like the roof of a house, 

 you need not have the upright stakes nor the edge-boards 

 that I there recommended. Three or four feet will be 

 quite wide enough. The length you regulate according 

 to the quantity of mushrooms that you wish to grow. 

 Begin, then, with your bed, shaking the dung up well, 

 and, if it be long, beating it well, just as in the case of 

 the cucumber-bed, only keep drawing it in by degrees 

 till you have it in the shape of the roof of a house : beat 

 it on the top as- you carry it up, but, particularly, beat it 





