18 MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 



eight inches wide at top, and there is a foot alley between 

 them. Here, again, no shelf beds are used. 



One of the chief troubles with flat-roofed mushroom 

 cellars is the drip from the condensed moisture rising 

 from the beds, and this is more apparent in nnheated 

 than in heated cellars, — the wet gathers upon the ceil- 

 ing and, having no slope to run off, drips down again. 

 Oiled paper or calico strung along A wise above the 

 upper beds protects them perfectly ; whatever falls upon 

 the passage-ways upon the floor does no harm. 



In any other outhouse cellar, as well as in one com- 

 pletely given over to this use, we can make up beds and 

 grow good mushrooms. Mr. James Vick told me that at 

 his seed farm near Rochester he raises many mushrooms 

 in winter in his potato cellars ; and so can any one in 

 similar places. Mr. John CuUen, of South Bethlehem, 

 Pa., a very successful cultivator, tells me that his present 

 mushroom cellar used to be a large underground cistern, 

 but with a little .fixing, and opening a passage-way to it 

 from a neighboring cellar, he has converted it into an 

 excellent cellar for mushrooms, and surely the immense 

 crops that I have seen in that cave of total darkness jus- 

 tify his good opinion of it. 



In Dwelling House — The cellar of a dwelling 

 house is a capital place for mushroom beds, and can be 

 used in whole or part for this purpose. In the case of 

 private families who wish to grow a few mushrooms only 

 for their own use it is not necessary to devote a whole 

 cellar to it ; but partition off a part of it with boards 

 and make the beds in this. Or make a bed alongside of 

 the wall anywhere and box it in to protect it from cold 

 and draughts, and mice and rats. You can have shelves 

 above it for domestic purposes, just as you would in any 

 other part of the cellar. Bear in mind that mushrooms 

 thrive best in an atmospheric temperature of from 50° to 

 60°, and if you can give them this in your house-cellar 



