MUSHROOM SPAWN. 17 



fit for spawning beds. If it cannot be used at once, the 

 manure— or spawn, as it may now be termed — ought to be 

 turned out of the pots and divided into good-sized lumps or 

 flakes, and be kept cool and dry till needed. If kept too 

 long iu pots and heat it is soon spoilt for spawning purposes, 

 but might produce a few mushrooms. The wisest course is 

 to fill a few pots occasionally, or say about three weeks before 

 a fresh bed will be ready to spawn. We have, by way of 

 e.'iperiment, successfully used a mass of loamy soil turned out 

 of pots in which old mushroom-bed manure had been used for 

 covering the drainage crocks, and from this the mycelium 

 spread into the soil. 



Old Mushroom-bed Manure, mixed with a heap 

 of decaying rubbish, manure, and soil for vegetable marrow 

 beds, has repeatedly been the means of spawning a large 

 open-air bed, the mushrooms being produced among the 

 haulm of the plants overrunning the surface. We do not, 

 however, advise anyone to depend upon the manure obtained 

 from old beds for spawning new ones, as it is only those that 

 have been kept -rather drier than the rest in which the spores 

 long survive. 



Purchasing: Spawn — Spawn is usually sold by the 

 bushel of sixteen bricks, each 9in. long, Gin. wide, and 2in. 

 deep. The usual price is 5s. per bushel. In buying take 

 great care to obtain it in a fresh condition, otherwise few, if 

 any, mushrooms will appear. It can be had direct from the 

 makers or' through the medium of a seedsman, the former 

 being the better mode of the two. 



