MUSHROOM GROWING IN THE PARIS CAVES. 145 



watered ; the same shallow square form is retained, and 

 it is again trodden down firm. In about six days more 

 it is again turned, shaken up, watered, squared off, and 

 trodden as before. In about three days after this it 

 should be fit for use and may be turned, shaken up 

 loosely, and dumped down the shaft into the cave and 

 carried to the spot where the beds are to be formed. Of 

 course these operations must be modified according to 

 circumstances and the condition of the manure. 



In making the beds the ground is first marked off. 

 The first bed is made alongside of the wall, and rounded 

 to the front ; the other beds run parallel with this and 

 may be straight, crooked, or wavy, as the interior of the 

 cave may suggest. The beds are all ridge-shaped, eight- 

 een to twenty inches wide at the base, eighteen to twenty 

 inches high in the middle, six inches wide at top, and 

 the sides sloping. Pathways twelve inches wide run 

 between the beds. The workmen build the beds by 

 piece-work and receive one-half cent per running foot. 

 A good workman can make 240 feet a day (Lachaume). 

 The beds are built neatly and firmly and with much 

 nicety as regards size and proportions. But the work- 

 men do not use a fork or any other tool in the construc- 

 tion of the beds ; they lift, shake up, spread and build 

 the manure with their naked hands and pack it firm 

 with their knees. 



The spawn is obtained from the working beds and is 

 what the mushroom growers there call "virgin" spawn, 

 though not at all what we know by that term. As a 

 succession of beds is kept up all the year round it is an 

 easy matter for the growers to get their spawn at any 

 time. The best time to get the spawn is when the 

 young mushrooms are first appearing. A bed or part of 

 a bed in capital working order is selected and broken up 

 and the cakes of manure thoroughly matted up with the 

 active mycelium are selected for spawning the fresh beds. 

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