30 MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GKOW THEM. 



pressing out in building the beds. The supporting legs 

 of the shelves are also nailed to the face board of the 

 lower bed, and this holds them perfectly solid in place. 

 The shelf beds are eight inches deep at front, but can 

 be made of any depth desired against the walls at the 

 back. The cold wall has no injurious effect upon the 

 bearing of the bed, and many fine mushrooms grow close 

 against the walls. 



The entrance pits are nine and one-half feet deep from 

 ground level, chree feet eight inches wide, nine feet 

 long, and are covered over with folding doors on strong 

 hinges, and descended into by. means of wooden mov- 

 able stairs. These dimensions are needed at the end 

 where the heating apparatus is placed, but at the other 

 end, although it is convenient in handling the manure, a 

 space two or three feet less would have answered just as 

 well. A close door at either end of the mushroom cellar 

 proper separates it from the end pits. The cellar is 

 divided in the middle by a partition. This gives, when 

 it is in full working order, eight beds, each thirty-one 

 and one-half feet long, or a continuous run of 25Z feet 

 or 756 square feet of surface, and as the beds are re- 

 newed twice a year this gives 504 running feet of bed, 

 or 1512 square feet of surface. A common average crop 

 is thi"ee-fifths of a pound of mushrooms to the square 

 foot of bed, and a good fair average is four-fifths of a 

 pound. This would give over a thousand pounds of 

 mushrooms a season from this cellar when it is in full 

 running capacity. But as the aim is to have a steady 

 supply of mushrooms from October until May, and not a 

 flush at any one time and a scarcity at another, only two 

 beds are made at a time, allow^ing a month to intervene 

 between every two. 



For the two beds, No. 1, preparing the manure begins 

 in July, the beds are made up in August, and gathering 

 of the crop commences in October; work on the two 



