64 MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 



loads of the common New York stable manure a year 

 for our general outdoor crops, and it also is capital 

 manure in its way, but not so good as the selected 

 manure for mushrooms. It is mixed a little and smells 

 very rank, and in mushroom beds usually produces a 

 good deal of spurious fungi. Most all of our largest 

 mushroom growers, Van Siclen of Jamaica, Denton of 

 Woodhaven, Connard of Hoboken, and others, live within 

 easy hauling distance of the city, and are able to select 

 and get the very choicest manure at a very cheap rate. 

 Baled Manure. — Within a year or two a good deal 

 of our city horse manure has been put up in bales and 

 thus shipped and sold. Each bale contains from 350 to 

 nearly 500 lbs, and is made up, pressed and tied in about 

 the same way as baled hay. The principal advantages 

 of the bales are these : Only the cleanest horse manure 

 is put up in this way ; cow manure, offal, spent hops, or 

 other short or soft manures are not included in the bales, 

 nor, on account of shipping considerations, are malodor- 

 ous manures of any sort permitted in them. The rail- 

 roads allow baled manure to be put off on their platforms, 

 and closer to their stations than they would allow loose 

 manure ; and it often happens that an agent will send a 

 carload to a railroad station and dump it off there so 

 that the people around who have only small garden lots 

 can have an opportunity of buying one or more bales, 

 just as they need it, and without, as is generally the 

 case, having to buy a whole load when they need only 

 half a load. These bales are quite a boon to people who 

 would like to have a small bed of mushrooms in their 

 cellar and who have no other manure. Bring home one 

 or more bales, open them, spread out the manure a little, 

 and when it heats turn it a few times, and it will soon 

 be ready for use. Or if you do not wish to litter up the 

 place, roll the bales into the cellar, shed, or wherever 

 else you wish to make use of them, and mix about one- 



