MUSHROOM CULTURE. 



483 



beds is a process continually going on, a bed of this sort 

 must be ready at all times. It is never made into bricks 

 as with us, but simply spread tbrougb short, partly-decom- 

 posed manure. 



I was informed that coal mines are not adapted for grow- 

 ing Mushrooms, and the smallest particle of iron in the beds 

 of manure is avoided by the spawn, a circle around it 

 remaining inert. It is said to be the same with coal. If 

 an evil-disposed workman wishes to injure his employer he 

 has only to slip along by the beds with a pocketful of rusty 

 old nails and insert one here and there. 



Fig. 286. 



View in old Subterranean Quarries devoted to Mushroom Culture, and in 

 the occupation of M. Eenaudot. 



The beds remain in good bearing generally about two 

 months, but sometimes last twice and three times as long. 

 A useful contrivance for facilitating the watering of the beds 

 has lately been invented ; it consists of a portable water- 

 cistern to be strapped to the back and fitted with a rose and 

 tubing, so that a workman may carry a larger quantity of 

 water, and apply it more regularly and gently than with the 

 old-fashioned watering-pots — while one hand is left free to 

 carry the lamp. An iron frame has also been invented, in 

 which the bed. is first compressed and shaped, the frame 

 being then reversed and the bed placed in position. 

 Another invention for earthing the beds over as soon as the 

 spawn has taken will soon be in operation, if not already so. 



