lOG MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GEOW THEM. 



an unsettled question. Some growers recommend three- 

 fourths of an inch, others one, one and one-half, two, 

 or two and one-half inches, and some of our best grow- 

 ers of fifty or seTenty-flve years ago were emphatic in 

 asserting three inches as the proper depth, but among 

 recent writers I do not find any wJio go beyond two and 

 one-half inches. My own experience is in favor of a 

 heavy covering, say one and one-half to two inches. In 

 the ease of a thin covering the mushrooms come up all 

 right but their texture is not as solid as it is in the case 

 of a heavy covering, nor do the beds continue as long in 

 bearing ; besides, "fogging off" is much more prevalent 

 under thinly covered than under heavily covered beds ; 

 also, when the coating of loam is heavy a great many 

 more of the "pinheads" develop into full sized mush- 

 rooms than in the ease of thinly moldfid beds. 



Opinions differ as to firming the soil. I am in favor 

 of packing the soil quite firm, and have never seen good 

 mushrooms that could not come through a well firmed 

 casing of loam, and I never knew of an instance where 

 firm casing stopped or checked the spreading of the 

 mycelium or the development of the mushrooms. In the 

 case of flat beds, — ^for instance, those made on shelves 

 and floors, — a slightly compacted coating (and this is all 

 Mr. J. 6. Gardner uses) may be all right, but in the 

 case of alongside-of-walls, ridge, and other rounded beds 

 I much prefer and always use solidly compacted casings. 



Mr. Henshaw has for several years used green sods 

 about two inches thick, put all over the bed, grass side 

 down, and beaten firmly. The advantage of using sods 

 instead of soil, he thinks, is that the young clusters of 

 mushrooms never damp or 'fogg off' as they are apt to 

 do when soil is used. 



I have given this green sods method repeated and 

 careful trials, and am satisfied that it has no advantages, 

 in any way,, over common fibrous loam ; indeed, it is 



