434 
loam, 2% inches thick, for the mushroom to come up 
through, but not for nourishment. Smooth the bed care- 
fully with the back of a rake. The quality of the soil is not 
important, but it is essential to sift it through an ash sifter 
to remove stones, etc., and to reduce lumps. The mush- 
room is forming down in the compost. Selected soil will 
not help it a particle, its mission being purely as a cover for 
the bed, holding in the moisture, and as a support of the 
stem of the mushroom when it comes up, with a small ball 
on the end, which is to unroll and form a cap. Swamp or 
bog soil is dangerous to use for this purpose. The temper- 
ature of the interior of the mushroom bed should be kept 
from 50 to 60 degrees during the fruiting period, and the 
soil surface at from 45 to 50 degrees, and air in the room 
at 60 degrees. A hygrometer costing $1.50 should hang 
on the wall to show the amount of moisture in the air. 
When it registers 80 or above the air is all right. If it 
falls below, sprinkle the floor and walls lightly with water. 
Where artificial heat is-applied to raise the temperature of 
the room or when the heat of Summer raises it too high, 
light sprinkling of the loam cover of the bed is in order. 
A whiskbroom, spray sprinkler or spray pump, the last 
costing $5, may be used. Remember a compost bed will 
retain its original moisture if you keep the loam cover just 
moist, not too moist nor too dry. The cover water should 
be 100 degrees warm in cold weather, occasionally mixed 
with two ounces of saltpetre to the gallon. In Summer 
ordinary hydrant water may be used on the bed cover. 
Water a bed just before it appears to be drying out. Mush- 
rooms should begin to appear six to eight weeks after plant- 
ing the spawn if these directions have been followed, other- 
wise they may appear any time within eight months or not 
at all. In other words, mushrooms are due in about three 
months from the day the manure arrived. This method is 
for virgin spawn. 
There is no material difference in preparing a bed for 
the reception of brick spawn. One grower advises seven 
bricks for a bed of 50 square feet, the cost of which is $2. 
These are broken into sections two inches square, or from 
8 to 12 pieces per brick, inserted one to two inches deep at 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Can oot 
athe euttoor ‘iushioon bed wielded prolifically through the Summer months 
December, 1912 
from ten to twelve inches apart. I have said nothing about 
boxing in a bed. If professionals don’t do it, why should 
you? Mushrooms will come out on the edges of a bed 
properly tamped. A bed is boxed in Winter by people 
who hope to. get through without the expenditure of an oil- 
stove to raise the temperature, and also propose to rely on 
bed covers as well as side boards. p 
Pick mushrooms when they are plump and fresh, just 
before the veil over the gills begins to break away, and as 
fast as they reach this condition. Pick by giving the mush- 
room a gentle twist, so as not to injure the mycelium, or 
mushroom tree below the surface. Brush off the dirt and 
keep in a cool place if you must, but in the stomach if pos- 
sible. 
Mushroom beds may be placed indoors or outdoors, but 
with different methods. They may be placed in cellars, caves, 
tunnels, stables, sheds, boxes, greenhouses and garden beds 
in early Spring. A piano box represents the ideal size of 
a mushroom bed for the ordinary table use of the home. 
Everybody that owns a garden should have an outdoor 
mushroom bed to supply the table during the season of 
vegetables, green corn and fruits. It can be placed any- 
where. Make a stout frame of plank, like the illustration, 
15 inches high. Make a bottom of mown grass or hay 
tramped down to an even surface. Build the mushroom 
bed on that. There must be a board cover, or preferably 
a double cellar door over the bed, fitting on the heavy frame 
to keep out the sun and rain. Every pleasant night take 
off the cover to let the dew fall on the bed and to cool and 
aereate it. Use the bed thermometer continually to see 
what the bed is doing. Mushrooms will grow plentifully 
out of doors without any care whatever and will take care 
of themselves if started properly. A friend failed to grow 
them in his cellar from some reason. He pitched the bed 
out into his back yard. Soon thereafter mushrooms be- 
gan fruiting and finally spread all over his premises. They 
are now growing on those of neighbor’s, showing that if 
started right they take care of their own propagation out 
of doors and fruit in their natural season, and inexpensively. 
(Continued on page 441) 
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