MANURE FOE MCSHIIOOM BEDS. Go 



COW manure enough to give the mass a pasty character 

 it will make capital mushroom beds. Pigs often have 

 the run of the manure-cellar, as is generally the case in 

 farmyards. I would not use any part of this mixed pig 

 manure. Mycelium evades hog manure ; besides it is 

 impure and malodorous, and a propagating bed for nox- 

 ious insect vermin. It matters very little what kind of 

 bedding is used, in the case of cellar manure, but I 

 would not buy it if sawdust or salt hay had been used as 

 bedding. Neither of these materials, in limited quan- 

 tity, is deleterious to the mushrooms ; at the same time, 

 they are far less desirable than straw, field hay, German 

 peat moss, or corn stalks, and there are risks enough in 

 mnshroom-growing without courting any that we can as 

 well avoid. 



City Stable Manure. — Around New York this can 

 always be had in any quantity at a reasonable rate, and 

 it is first-rate manure for mushroom beds. Market gar- 

 deners haul in a load' of vegetables to market and bring 

 back a load of manure ; others may buy and haul home 

 manure in the same way, or make arrangements with a 

 teamster to do it for them. But the whole matter of 

 city manure is now so deftly handled by agents, who 

 make a special business of it, tliafc we can get any quan- 

 tity of manure, from a 500 lb bale to an unlimited num- 

 ber of loads, and of most any quality, delivered near or 

 far, inland or coastwise, at a fairly moderate price. It 

 is the city stable manure that nearly all our large mar- 

 ket growers use for their mushroom beds. When they 

 get it at the stables and cart it home themselves they 

 know what they are handling, and should take only fresh 

 horse dung. In ordering it of an agent be particular to 

 arrange for the freshest and cleanest, pure horse manure. 

 They will get it for you. We get several hundreds of 

 loads of this selected manure from them every year for 

 hotbeds, and find it excellent. We also get 1000 to 2000 



