V. MUSHROOM. 



of nine or ten inches depth to keep in the dung and the 

 earth. Whoever has seen the births in a barrack-room, 

 or in the state-room of a ship, has seen precisely what 

 the shelves of a German mushroom-house are. These 

 shelves are to be filled with the dung or compost in 

 which you are to plant your mushroom spawn, and, as to 

 preparing compost, you proceed in this manner : take a 

 quantity of fresh horse dung, with as little long litter as 

 possible ; the less the better j that has not been exposed 

 to wet and that has not fermented ; mix it with a fourth 

 part of fresh mould, and, if you can, get the scrapings 

 of a horse-track of a mill-house of any sort j mix all 

 well together, and, in your shelves, or in as many of 

 them as you mean to put to work at once, put a layer six 

 inches thick of this mixture, beating it down as hard as 

 you can with a wooden bat. This will reduce it down to 

 the thinness of four inches, or less. Then put in another 

 layer, rather less thick, and beat that down in the same 

 way 5 observing that, towards the wall at the back part 

 of your shelf, you can afford to increase the thickness of 

 your layers, as there is the wall to support them ; and 

 the thicker you make these layers, the stronger will be 

 the bed. Having done this, observe the fermentation 

 from day to day, as it goes on, and when it is palpably 

 on the decline, make a parcel of holes in the compost at 

 from six to nine inches asunder, and put in the spawn ; 

 and then cover it over with a covering of mould about an 

 inch thick. Water may be given out of a very fine-rosed 

 watering pot, when the weather is very warm, and then 

 it is recommended to scatter a little straw over first, and 

 water on that, the mushroom being inclined to rot from 

 any over quantity of moisture, however little. These 



