CULTIVATION. 257 
himself with a few barrowfuls of strawy dung to form the 
foundation of his bed, so that the depth, when all is finished, be 
not less than a foot. Let the temperature be up to milk heat. 
He will then, when quite sure that the bed will not overheat, put 
on his summer droppings. By this time these will be one mass 
of natural spawn, having a grey mouldy and thready appear- 
ance, and a smell like that of mushrooms. Let all be pressed 
very hard; then let mould, unsifted, be put on, to the thickness 
of four inches, and trodden down hard with the feet and watered 
all over; and the back of a spade may now be used to make it 
still harder, as well as to plaster the surface all over.”’* Mush- 
rooms are cultivated very extensively by Mr. Ingram, at Belvoir, 
without artificial spawn. There isa great riding-house there, in 
which the litter is ground down by the horses’ feet into very 
small shreds. These are placed in a heap and turned over once 
cr twice during the season, when a large quantity of excclient 
spawn is developed which, placed in asparagus beds or laid under 
thin turf, produces admirable mushrooms, in the latter case as 
clean as in our best pastures.t 
Other species will sometimes be seen growing on mushroom- 
beds besides the genuine mushroom, the spawn in such cases 
being probably introduced with the materials employed. We 
have seen a pretty crisped variety of Agaricus dealbatus growing 
in profusion in such a place, and devoured it accordingly. Some- 
times the mushrooms will, when in an unhealthy condition, be 
subject to the ravages of parasitic species of mould, or perhaps 
of Hypomyces. Xylaria vaporaria has, in more than one instance, 
usurped the place of mushrooms. Mr. Berkeley has received 
abundant specimens in the Sclerotioid state, which he succeeded 
in developing in sand under a bell glass. Of course under such 
conditions there is much loss. The little fuiry-ring champignou 
is an excellent and useful spccies, and it is a great pity that 
some effort should not be made to procure it by cultivation. In 
* Cuthill, ‘‘ Treatise on the Cultivation of the Mushroom,” p. 9. 
++ Mr. Berkeley lately recommended, at one of the meclings of the Horticul- 
tural Society at South Kensington, that the railway arches should be utilized for 
the cultivation of mushrooms. 
