GROWING MUSHROOMS IN CELLARS. 29 



escape of the artificial heat. One might think that the 

 hot water pipe under, and so near the bed, would dry it 

 up and destroy it, but such is not the ease. In a cellar 

 of this kind very little fire heat is needed to maintain the 

 required temperature, and I do not know where else the 

 pipes could be put where they would do the work any 

 better and be more out of the way. 



These beds, for convenience in building them, spawn- 

 ing them, molding them over, gathering the crop and 

 watering the beds, and removing the manure after the 

 beds are exhausted, are built against the wall and with a 

 rounded face, thus giving a three and one-half feet wide 

 surface of bed in place of one three feet wide, were it 

 built flat. This gain in superficial area is not so impor- 

 tant as it might seem, for the part immediately next to 

 the edge of the pathway seldom yields very much. 

 Above these beds a string of shelf beds is arranged 

 which runs the full length of both sides of the cellar. 

 From the floor of the under bed to the floor of the top 

 bed is three feet, and the upper beds are just as wide as 

 the lower ones. The shelves for the beds are temporary 

 affairs, put up pnd taken down every yea,r. The cross- 

 bars rest in sockets in the wall made by cutting out half 

 a brick every four feet along the wall, and ou upright 

 strips or feet one and one-fourth by four inches wide, or 

 two by three inches, set under the inside ends of the 

 cross-bars and resting on the cement floor close up 

 against the lower bed. By having this foot end a quar- 

 ter of an inch higher than the wall end the heavy weight 

 of the bed is thrown toward the wall. Loose hemlock 

 boards set close together form the flooring, for there is 

 no need of nailing any of them except the one next to 

 the upright face board, which is ten inches wide, and 

 nailed along the front, by the pathway, to the posts and 

 shelf board. By tilting the weight to the wall the up- 

 right boai'd is firm enough to hold its place against any 



