112 THE CULINARY GARDEN. [SEPT. 



This vegetable may be produced by first making 

 lumps, or what are sometimes called cakes of spawn, 

 and afterwards placing them on a slight dung hot- 

 bed, where the spawn vegetates into complete mush- 

 rooms ; in which process of making the spawn (as it 

 is termed,) different ingredients are used, but chief- 

 ly the dung of horses, as said above. This has so 

 far become a branch of trade, as that mushroom- 

 spawn may be had of most of the nursery and seeds- 

 men about all the great towns in the kingdom. 



I have formerly been in the practice of producing 

 mushrooms, however, most successfully, without 

 using spawn, and by a very simple process: I might 

 rather say, without transplanting spawn in the com- 

 mon way, but by making the bed a whole mass of 

 spawn at once, and never disturbing it till done 

 bearing. Beds that are built in the common way, 

 and spawned, seldom produce long ; perhaps only 

 for a few weeks or months. I have had them con- 

 tinue to yield large crops the year round, arid some- 

 times for two years. But mushroom beds, in what- 

 ever way made, are subject to many misfortunes ; 

 and the spawn is of a nature so delicate, that it is 

 quickly destroyed, either by too much wet or 

 drought. 



By making up a bed in the ordinary way, that is, 

 of stable dung, moderately fermented, to the thick- 

 ness of about a yard ; spawning it over when the 

 strong heat has subsided, and then covering it with 

 light earth, mushrooms may be obtained sooner 

 than by the process I shall recommend. But if this 

 process be more slow, it has the advantage of being 



