46 MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 



feet wide and carrying three and one-half feet wide 

 sashes. A string of them is run along the middle of the 

 greenhouses, for greenhouse after greenhouse is occupied 

 by them. They are flat upon the floor, and in the early 

 part of the season alone in the greenhouses. But as the 

 winter advances a temporary staging is erected over 

 these frames, on which spiraeas, peas, beans, or other 

 flowers or vegetables are to be grown. These love the 

 light and a position near the glass, whereas the mush- 

 rooms grow perfectly well in the dark quarters of the 

 frames under the stages. If he did not grow mushrooms 

 under these stages the room would be unoccupied, hence 

 unproductive ; but by occupying it with mushrooms he 

 not only gets peaches and snap beans at once out of the 

 same greenhouse, but also a crop of mushrooms, often 

 worth as much as the other two. 



In preparing the beds in the frames they were made 

 up a foot deep, very firm, and with 'New York stable 

 manure brought direct from the cars. There was no 

 preliminary preparation of the manure. A layer of loam 

 one and one-half inches deep was then spread over the 

 surface and forked into the bed of manure one and one- 

 half inches deep, so as to form an earthy mat three 

 inches deep. This was then packed solid with the feet, 

 and a two-inch layer of loose manure added all over. In 

 about ten days the temperature three inches below the 

 surface was about 95°, and the beds were then spawned. 

 In spawning, drills were drawn across the beds about a 

 foot apart and just deep enough to touch but not pene- 

 trate the earthy mat before referred to. The broken 

 spawn was then sown in the drills and covered with a 

 layer of loam one and one-half to two inches deep, which 

 was tamped slightly. The sashes were then put on and 

 tilted up a little to let the moisture escape. By the 

 time the mushrooms appeared there was very little need 

 of ventilating, as the condensation of moisture on the 



