48 MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 



it does, the floor to be under the beds can be rendered 

 dry by raising it a little higher than the general level, or 

 using a flooring of old boards. Beds should not be built 

 close up against hot-water pipes, steam pipes, or smoke 

 flues, as the heat from these when they are in working 

 condition will bake the parts of the beds next to them 

 and render them unproductive, and also crack and spoil 

 the caps of the mushrooms that come up within a foot 

 or two of the pipes. But this injury from hot pipes and 

 flues can be lessened greatly by boxing the pipes, so as 

 to shut off the heat from the mushroom beds and allow- 

 ing it full escape upward ; then the beds can be made, 

 with safety, up to within a foot of the pipes. As a rule, 

 hot-water pipes are run around under the front benches 

 of a greenhouse, then it would not be advisable to make 

 beds under those benches. The middle bench is the one 

 most commonly free from pipes, hence the one best 

 adapted for beds. It has more headroom, and therefore 

 easier working . facilities. Steam-heated greenhouses 

 generally present the best accommodations for mushroom 

 beds, because the pipes occupy less room under the 

 benches than do those for hot water, and they are always 

 kept higher from the ground. 



Among Other Plants on Greenhouse Benches. 

 — It sometimes happens that mushrooms spring up spon- 

 taneously among the roses, carnations, violets, mignon- 

 ette, and other crops that are grown "planted out" on 

 tlie benches, ajid this is particularly the case where fresh 

 soil had just been used, in whole or part, for filling the 

 bench beds. These mushrooms come from natural 

 spawn contained in the loam or manure before they were 

 brought indoors, and which is apt to bo true virgin 

 spawn. The mushrooms are generally of the common 

 kind, grown from brick spjiwn, but occasionally a much 

 larger and heavier sort is produced, and this is the " horse " 

 mushroom. It is perfectly good to oat, only of coarser 

 quality than the other. 



