73 MUSHROOMS, HOW TO QKOW THEM. 



pile, and better have recourse to any method of drying 

 the manure than use it wet. If, on account of the 

 weather or lack of convenience for drying, the manure 

 can not be dried enough, add dry loam, dry sand, dry 

 half-rotted leaves, dry peat moss, dry chaff, or dry finely 

 cut hay or straw, and mix together. 



The proper condition of the manure, as regards dry- 

 ness or moistueSs, can readily be known by handling it. 

 Take a handful of the manure and squeeze it tight ; it 

 should be unctuous enough to hold together in a lump, 

 and so dry that you can not squeeze a drop of water 

 out of it. 



Some private gardeners in England lay particular 

 stress upon collecting the fresh droppings at the stables 

 every day, and spreading them out upon a shed or barn 

 floor to dry, and in this way keeping them dry and from 

 heating until enough has accumulated for a bed, when 

 the bed is made up entirely of this material, or of part 

 of this and part- of loam. But market gardeners, the 

 ones whose bread and butter depend upon the crops 

 they raise, never practice this method, and that patri- 

 arch in the business, Richard Gilbert, denounces the 

 practice unstintedly. 



Different growers have different ideas of preparing 

 manure for mushroom beds, but the aim of all is to get 

 it into the best possible condition with the least labor 

 and expense, and to guard against depriving it of any 

 more ammonia than can be helped. See Mr. Gardner's 

 method of preparing manure, p. 22. 



Loam and Manure Mixed. — Mushroom beds are 

 often formed of loam and manure mixed together, say 

 one-third or one-fourth part of the whole being loam, 

 and the other two-thirds or three-fourths manure ; if a 

 larger proportion of loam is used it will render the beds 

 rather cold unless they are made unusually deep. I am 

 not prepared to affirm or deny that this mixed material 



