66 MUSHEOOMS, HOW TO GEOW XHEM. 



it beautifully, and it bears fine mushrooms. Still, it is 

 no better than plain horse manure. The poorest kind 

 of C0A7 manure is the fresh manure of cattle fed with 

 green grass, ensilage, and root crops; indeed, such ma- 

 nure can not be used alone ; it needs to be freely mixed 

 with some absorbent, as dry Icam, German moss, dry 

 liorse droppings, and the like, and even then I have 

 utterly failed to perceive its advautages ; it is a dirty 

 mass to work, and quite cold. 



In the manufacture of spawn, however, cow manure is 

 a requisite ingredient, and here again the manure of dry 

 fed animals is better than that of those fed with green 

 and other soft food. But my chief objection to the use 

 of cow manure in the mushroom beds is that it is a 

 favorite breeding and feeding place for hosts of perni- 

 cious buga and grubs and earth worms, — creatures that 

 we had better repel. from, rather than encourage in, our 

 mushroom beds. 



German Peat Moss Stable Manure for Mush- 

 room Beds. — Although I have not 

 yet had an opportunity of trying 

 this material for mushroom beds, 

 Mr. Gardner, of Jobstown, has great 

 faith in it ; so, too, has that prince 

 of English mushroom growers, Eich- 

 ard Gilbert, of Burghley, who re- 

 lates his success with it in growing no. 20. bal^f gek- 

 mushrooms in the English garden "^^ ^'^at moss. 

 papers. This peat moss is a comparatively new thing in 

 this country, and is used in place of straw for bedding 

 horses. It is a great absorbent and soaks up much of 

 the urine that, were straw nsed instead, would be likely 

 to pass off into the drains. To this is ascribed its great 

 virtue in mushroom culture. It should be mixed with 

 loam when tised for mushroom beds. 



Sawdust Stable Manure for Mushroom Beds. — 

 This is tl»o manure obtained from stables where sawdust 



