110 THE CULINARY GARDEN. 



it may be removed at pleasure, and to have two 

 moveable boards on each side, of about a foot square, 

 to slip for the admission of air. 



This sort of frame being placed in a dry warm 

 situation, and being insulated by a drain or trench, 

 would completely defend the bed from wet : and 

 by being covered, in severe weather, with straw or 

 mats, from frost. If the ground be not perfectly 

 dry, a sole or floor must be formed of ashes, gravel, 

 or stone-chips, for the bed ; a thing necessary in 

 any situation which is the least damp, either within, 

 or out of doors. 



Of the cultivation of Mushrooms. 



The cultivation of mushrooms is a process in 

 gardening perhaps the most singular and curious of 

 any. In the culture of any other vegetable, we 

 either sow or plant something material, a seed, 

 slip, or root, which we both see and handle ; but in 

 the culture of the mushroom, we neither sow nor 

 plant any thing visible, at least to the naked eye. 

 Yet it is certain, that mushrooms are produced by 

 seeds, which naturally vegetate in the fields at cer- 

 tain seasons, and which may be made to vegetate 

 artificially at any season, by a certain process, and 

 by a composition in which the dungs of certain ani- 

 mals* form the chief ingredient. 



The droppings of horses are found to produce 

 mushrooms more plentifully, and with greater cer- 

 tainty, than the dungs of other animals. Hence it 

 would appear, that their stomachs have less power 

 to hurt, or to destroy the vegetative quality of 



