SIMPLE METHODS. 37 



d 



deep of good decayed manure being spread over it. There 

 ought to be a depth of not less than 18in. of well-trampled 

 leaves, which will then supply a lasting, steady, and sweet 

 heat, the manure providing the suitable food for the mush- 

 rooms. Spawn, soil, and otherwise treat as advised in the 

 case of other flat beds. 



In Pastures, etc — " it may not," says a correspon- 

 dent in "Amateur Gardening," "be generally known that any- 

 one can grow a good crop of mushrooms throughout the sum- 

 mer without any difficulty whatever. Those readers, for in- 

 stance, who possess a meadow or a piece of grass land may lift 

 square pieces of turf a foot or so in diameter, and dig out 

 the soil to the depth of 9in. or 12in. Then fill in with 

 freshly-gathered horse manure — that from the stable being 

 best — and press this very firm, previously inserting two or 

 three small pieces of mushroom spawn about 2in. below the 

 surface. Replace the turf and beat it down with a spade. 

 Pieces of spawn inserted thus, in clumps about a few yards 

 from each other, will in a fine summer yield an immense 

 quantity of mushrooms. It is not everyone, however, who 

 has a meadow, and .therefore some other plan must be 

 adopted. Well, a good one is to insert pieces of spawn in 

 the manure just below the surface, when making a hotbed 

 for growing cucumbers or vegetable marrows. In celery 

 trenches the writer has also inserted mushroom spawn witli 

 good results, and no doubt other readers could do likewise 

 were they so disposed. It depends on the summer, however, 

 as to whether plenty of mushrooms will be produced." 



Mushrooms in Flower Bed — "In a flat bed in my 

 garden," remarks a correspondent in "Amateur Gardening," 

 "about 6ft. by 4ft., a few mushrooms sprang up spontane- 

 ously, which prompted me to get a brick of spawn, which I 

 broke into small pieces, then, with a pointed stick, made holes 

 both in sides and top about 6in. deep, and inserted some 

 in each, and made up the holes with the old rotten bed. In 

 due course mushrooms began to appear ; in three days I 



