QEOWI.WG MUSHBOOMS IN CELLABS. 23 



On the next day the soil from bed No, 1, spawned four 

 days earlier, was thrown upon bed No. 2, and then part 

 of the soil that was thrown on No. 1 was thrown back 

 again on No. 2, so that now a coating of loam an inch 

 and a half deep covered the whole surface of the bed. 

 When finished the surface was tamped gently with a 

 tamper with a face of pine plank sixteen inches long by 

 twelve inches wide. Mr. Gardner does not believe in 

 the alleged advantages of a hard-packed surface on the 

 mushroom bed, but is inclined to favor a moderately 

 firm one. 



He uses the English brick spawn, which is sold by 

 our seedsmen. He has tried making his own spawn, 

 but owing to not having proper means for drying it, he 

 has had rather indifferent success. 



Almost all growers insert the pieces of spawn about 

 two to three inches under the surface of the manure, 

 one piece at a time, and at regular intervals of nine 

 inches or thereabouts apart each way — ^lengthwise and 

 crosswise. But here, again, Mr. Gardner displays his 

 individuality. He breaks up the spawn in the usual 

 way, in pieces one or two inches square. Of course, in 

 breaking it up there is a good deal of fine particles be- 

 sides the lumps. With an angular-pointed hoe he draws 

 drills eighteen inches apart and two and one-hatf to 

 three inches deep lengthwise along the bed, and in the 

 rows he sows thp spawn, as if he were sowing peach 

 stones, or walnuts, or snap beans, and covers it in as if it 

 were seeds. 



Mr. Gardner regards 57° as the most suitable tempera- 

 ture for a mushroom house or cellar, and, if possible, 

 maintains that without the aid of fire-heat. He has hot- 

 water pipes connected with the contiguous greenhouse 

 heating arrangement in his cellar, but he never uses 

 them for heating the mushroom cellar except when 

 obliged to. By mulching his bed with straw he gets 



