136 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
{ August 15, 1878. 
manure being too wet it must be laid thinly on a floor in a dry 
shed and be turned over frequently, or a portion of dry short straw 
may be mixed with it ; yet droppings saturated by rains are of very 
little value for the formation of Mushroom beds, for the spread 
of the spawn and the development of the Mushroom from the 
mycelium depends upon the steady decomposition of the material, 
old spent droppings being practically useless. In four days, or 
from that to a week, the heat will be (as it is termed) up, it may 
be to 90°, 100°, or more. When it is above 90° make holes about 
4inches deep and 9 inches apart, which will let off any rankness 
and to some extent lessen the heat. Insert the bulb of a thermo- 
meter 4 inches deep into the bed, and when the temperature 
declines to 80°, and not less than 75°, place in every hole a piece 
of brick (spawn) 14 to 2 inches square, making sure that it is 
thoroughly permeated with the mycelium of the Mushroom, and 
fill the holes with the material of the bed firmly, the pieces being 
about 2 inches beneath the surface. In a week remove a piece of 
the brick, and if the material of the bed in contact with it has 
been infested with the same white small threads that the brick 
exhibited when inserted return the piece to its place and cover up, 
and at once proceed to earth the bed. Turfy loam neither heavy 
nor light is best, that taken off a pasture with its turf about 
3 inches thick and stacked up for six months. This, chopped up 
fine, and in a medium state as to moisture, being neither wet nor 
dry, yet sufficiently moist to heat into a firm mass, put evenly 
over the bed 2 inches thick, either treading or beating with 
mallets firmly, and finishing off by beating with the back of a 
spade and smoothing the surface with the same. If it cannot be 
smoothed the surface must be watered, afterwards smoothing 
with the spade. In about six weeks the Mushrooms will begin 
showing ; the bed should then be watered gently, or damped by 
the syringe every day until the surface is brought into a moist 
condition, but avoid anything like soddenness. Except in the 
case of beds in draughty sheds we never use hay, but in dry 
draughty places a covering of soft hay about 2 inches thick is 
desirable to secure to the beds an unitormity of heat and mois- 
ture. In the Mushroom house proper hay is not necessary. In 
watering care must be had not to water over the Mushrooms in- 
discriminately, but avoid them by damping between or pouring 
the water just a little from the spout. The floor and other avail- 
able surfaces must be kept damp. No fire heat is needed, only 
to maintain a temperature of 55°. If the house be infested with 
woodlice it is well to place some boiled potatoes at the angles 
_ formed by the wall and floor or shelves, covering with a little hay, 
and in the morning pour boiling water over the hay. Prevention 
is better than cure, it being desirable to start with a thoroughly 
clean house, as if only a few of the pests are present they will 
increase rapidly and be sufficiently troublesome before the forced 
Mushroom season is over. F 
FRUIT HOUSES. 
Figs.—The second crop of Figs on the earliest forced trees will 
now be ripening or ripe, and should not receive more water at the 
roots than to maintain the foliage fresh, and syringing must be 
discontinued or the fruit will crack, besides being deteriorated in 
flavour. A free circulation of dry warm air is essential to the 
ripening of the fruit and wood. When the fruit is all gathered the 
main point is to secure the proper maturity of the growths, which 
if due attention has been given to stopping and thinning the shoots 
little will now be required except attention to ventilation and 
watering, which last should only be given to prevent the soil 
becoming too dry, and of the former they can hardly have too 
much, provided the air be warm. 
aside, only calling it into requisition as a means of subduing 
insects. Upon the ripening of the wood depend future crops, 
therefore the circulation of warm air must be maintained until the 
leaves die off naturally. Any trees crowded with foliage should 
have the shoots thinned, so as to admit light and air to taose 
retained to insure their thorough ripening. Trees that ripened a 
first crop in June will soon be ripening the second crop, and should 
be liberally supplied with manure water if the crop be heavy and 
the trees at all weakly ; but if vigorous and the crop not heavy 
clear water will be all that is wanted, with syringing overhead 
twice a day, proceeding as before advised when the fruit com- 
mences to ripen. Excepting trees in pots Fig trees should not at 
any season be exposed to the weather by removing the lights, but 
should have abundant ventilation ; but those in pots, from growing 
less vigorously than trees planted out, are the better if exposed 
to open-air influences after the crop of fruit is gathered, selecting 
a sheltered sunny situation, which will do much to invigorate them 
and harden the wood. 
p ORCHARD HOUSE. 
Apricot trees that have ripened the crops of fruit should be well 
syringed for some time to thoroughly clean the foliage. Those in 
pots when the fruit is gathered may with advantage be placed in 
a warm situation outdoors, the pots being plunged in ashes and 
placed upon the same to prevent the ingress of worms. They must 
be thoroughly syringed every evening. It is wonderful what 
influence the sun has upon the young wood and spurs in plumping 
the buds andripening the wood. The roots must not be neglected 
for water. In cold localities the placing of these and Peach and 
The syringe should be laid, 
Nectarine trees in pots outdoors after the fruit is gathered is not 
advisable until the leaves begin to die off naturally, therefore our 
northern friends will act accordingly. 
Peaches and Nectarines ripening their fruit will not require so 
much water at the roots as when the fruit is swelling ; but though 
a lessened supply is desirable it must not be withheld so as to 
cause the soil to become dry, or the foliage will suffer and future 
prospects be jeopardised. The trees should be gone-over daily for 
the removal of ripe fruit, the hand being by far the best agent in 
gathering the fruit. Even a-net is not advisable. as the fruit in that 
case is deteriorated from over-ripeness, and if the fruit have to 
remain in the fruit room after gathering for a few days it is 
superior to that falling from the trees. The trees after the fruit 
is gathered may be placed outside as advised for Apricots, they 
being thoroughly syringed to free them of red spider, &c. Trees 
planted out ought, as soon as the fruit is gathered from them, to 
be syringed every evening, and water afforded the roots to main- 
tain the foliage in a healthy condition. 
Plum trees swelling off the fruit must be well supplied with 
water at the roots, and liquid manure up to indications of ripen- 
ing, when a somewhat lessened supply is desirable, syringing at 
that time ceasing, or the fruit will crack and be poor in flavour as 
compared with those that are ripened under drier or more favour- 
able circumstances ; but late kinds of Plums, as also Peaches and 
Nectarines, to be well supplied with water and syringed every 
evening. Plum trees, when the fruit is all gathered, should be 
placed outside in a sunny situation, cleansing the foliage with 
water from the garden engine. 
Pear trees in pots when in duplicates may, as regards a portion 
of the trees, be placed outside, indeed there are very few Pears 
that are not improved in flayour by placing them in the open air 
to ripen ; and with a view to prolong the season of some early 
kinds, that at most keep but a few days after being ripe, a portion 
of the trees may be placed behind a north wall, thereby retarding 
the ripening of particular varieties. 
Grapes growing over the pathway or orchard houses will now 
be ripening. The syringing in their case must cease, the laterals 
being kept well stopped, they should also have a good watering 
at the roots ; but other descriptions of fruit trees should be kept 
somewhat dry at the roots as the fruit approaches maturity with- 
out withholding water so excessively as to cause premature falling- 
off of the foliage or retarding the ripening of the crop. Not much 
stopping will now be necessary, but it must still be practised 
upon irregular and gross growths, and superfluous shoots should 
be removed altogether. Admit air abundantly day and night, 
except when the latter is cold, or during the prevalence of high 
winds. Wasps and birds are both numerous and voracious ; they 
are best excluded by hexagon netting over the ventilators, the 
wasps being tempted to drown themselves by hanging soda water 
bottles outside the house half filled with sweetened beer. 
PLANT HOUSES. 
Stove.—It is fully time to give more than ordinary attention to 
flowering and other stove plants in conservatories, as the nights 
at this season, though the days may be bright and hot, are 
frequently low in temperature, in which case tender plants should 
not have positions very near the ventilators, or those should be 
closed, otherwise the effect of the cold will seriously affect the 
plants. A cold night if followed by a hot day will not have any 
prejudicial effect upon the plants, as the heat will induce a circula- 
tion of the sap; but if the days are also cold and seyeral of such 
succeed each other the sap becomes so sluggish as to tell 
disastrously upon the plants. In such weather very little water 
will be required at the roots, yet in the case of flowering plants 
sufficient water must be given to maintain the freshness of the 
flower, and what is given should be in the morning, at a tempera- 
ture of 85° to 90°. It is advisable to employ a little fire heat in 
cold weather, presuming that the majority of the plants are from 
the stove, but if other plants in the structure are likely to suffer 
from the extra temperature it will be advisable to return the 
plants to their proper quarters in the stove. 
The forwardest of autumn and winter-flowering plants, such as 
Eranthemum pulchellum, Euphorbia jacquinizflora, Poinsettias, 
Plumbago rosea, P. coccineum superbum, Thyrsacanthus rutilans, 
&c., will have filled the pots with roots. Instead of shifting 
the plants into larger pots afford weak liquid manure, keeping 
the plants near the glass in a low hght house or pit, affording 
free ventilation by day to secure stout growth, and providing 
a little air at night, which has a decided ripening tendency; but 
on cold nights it is not desirable to admit air, as that would ~ 
be a means of bringing off the lower leaves, which it is desirable 
to retain if possible, not only for the sake of appearance, but to 
afford the vigour essential to the size and quantity of the flowers. 
Stocks of the above or similar plants that were struck later will 
be in free growth, and must haye every encouragement to complete 
it, but on no account allowing them to suffer for water at the 
roots. 
Orchids.—In the East India house, now that the weather is cold 
and the sun less powerful, a closer atmosphere will be needed. In 
dull weather the moisture must be lessened, and the temperature 
maintained at 75° by day and 65% by night, syringing the blocks, 
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