“THE MUSHROOM. 87é 
pact. The boxes are then placed in the mushroom-house, 
or in any out-house where a slightly increased temperature 
can be commanded. A degree of fermentation generally 
takes place; butif heat be not soon. pereeptible, another 
layer must still be added, till sufficient action be excited. 
When the beds are milk-warm, or between 80° and 90° 
Fahrenheit, some holes are dibbled in the mass to receive 
the spawn. ‘The holes are left open for some time; and 
when the heat is on the decline, but before it be quite 
gone, a piece of spawn brick is thrust into each opening, 
and the holes are closed with a little compost. A week 
afterwards, the boxes are covered with a smooth coating, 
two inches thick, of rich loamy mould mixed with about a 
fifth part of horse-droppings. The apartment is now kept 
as nearly and as equably at 55° Fahrenheit as circum- 
stances will allow. When the boxes become dry, a little 
soft water may be used, but sparingly and with circum- 
spection, and instead of watering directly on the surface 
of the bed, it is better to spread some hay over it, and to 
sprinkle the hay. The more that free air can be admitted, 
‘the flavor of the mushrooms is the better; but the exclu- 
sion. of frost is indispensable. If a number of boxes have 
been prepared at first, a few only at a time may be cover- 
ed with mould and brought into bearing, the rest being 
covered and cropped in succession, as mushrooms may be 
in demand. 
Mr. Edward Callow, in a tract on the artificial growth 
of mushrooms, describes a method in which the pits are 
wrought by means of dung heat. His structure somewhat 
resembles Atkinson’s melon-pit, only the roof is covered 
with thatch, and a suit of air-flues is formed within the 
interior of the pit, with branches crossing the principal bed 
which occupies the floor. Linings of fermenting litter aro 
