CULTURE OF MUSHEOOMS. 



243 



the lines, falls, and outlets seen to before beginning 

 the work. As a matter of procedure, it is also most 

 important that the main drain and outlets should be 

 made or altered, if need be, before any attempt is 

 made to lay the collecting or feeding drains. 



Another practical detail of great moment is to 

 begin digging at the lowest end of the drains. The 

 water will then clear itself by running into the 

 outlet or main, and the running water on the heels 

 of the drain-maker will make the work easier, as 

 W3ll as afford impromptu proof on the spot of the 

 correctness of the level and the efficiency of the 

 work. 



Experienced drainers, testing their work thus as 

 they dig, not seldom lay the tiles as they proceed, 

 and pass over the major portion of the soil on to 

 the newly-laid drain, instead of pitching it all on to 

 the surface) in the usual way. 



Horticultural drainers, as a rule, however, mostly 

 like to see a considerable length of their drains 

 clear before laying them, so as to make sure of the 

 discharge of the water. This practice, however, 

 carried to excess, as it often is, by laying the entire 

 length of the drain open before tiling or covering, 

 not only involves the risk of the sides falling in, 

 but the flowing water in the base becomes a source 

 of weakness, and is apt to cause future inequalities 

 of level, and thus injure or ruin the drain. Hence 

 the importance of tiling and filling in as rapidly as 

 possible. 



No stones nor any hard or porous materials 

 should be placed over the tiles. Many amateurs 

 in the art of draining seem to reason and act 

 as if it were impossible to have too much of a 

 good thing. Hardly have they laid the tiles 

 till they tumble in all manner of stones or other 

 hard rubbish upon the top of them. Nothing is 

 more effective in ruining the drains. Not only 

 are these apt to crack or smash the tiles, but 

 to displace and so disorganise them. On light 

 turfy lands the best covering over the drains 

 is a sod from one and a half to two inches 

 thick. On the majority of other lands a layer 

 of the stiffest available soil is the best next to 

 the tiles. If carefully trodden or rammed down, 

 all the better. This binds, almost welds, the 

 pipes into a semi-solid mass of continuous bore. 

 There need be no fear but that the water will find 

 its way into the pipes. It is sure to do so, if 

 not just over them, then down by the sides. Not a 

 few act, in drain-filling, as if the chief purpose of 

 the drains was simply to dry the section of land in- 

 cluded in their area. Were that all, or the chief, 

 desideratum, better not make them. The fact is, 

 the drain should remove any superfluous water from 

 the whole area of the tilth, and, what is of much 



more consequence, keep the water in perpetual 

 motion through its substance and mass. It is as 

 valuable as a circulating as a depleting force, and the 

 recognition of this fact would prevent full haK the 

 fallacies existing aUke in regard to the theory and 

 practice of drainage. 



In laying the tiles great care must be taken to 

 make the ends of the tiles meet as correctly as 

 may be. And of course when inch socket tiles 

 are used, these will be carefully placed within, 

 each other, and much care taken all through the 

 process of laying to prevent an}' stones or clods 

 of earth entering the bore of the tiles. It is 

 well, however, to tread in the earth more or 

 less in the process of filling up, so that most of 

 it may return from whence it came. Three prac- 

 tices, all too common, are named here to be shunned. 

 The first consists in filling in loosely and leaving 

 the soil in a heap over the drain ; the second is 

 filling in level and scattering the spare soil all over 

 the land ; the third is the placing most of the best 

 soil in the bottom or middle of the open area, and 

 scattering the barren or worthless soil on to the top. 

 The first is unsightly ; the second yet more so, as 

 after a time the land subsides, and a furrow on the 

 surface marks the course of every drain ; the third 

 clearly marks the drain- spaces w:ith an unsightly 

 and unprofitable line of barrenness. The first two 

 evils may be cured by careful filling in, and the 

 •last by the common-sense simple plan of reserving 

 the top spit for the crown of the drain- space. 



THE CULTURE OF MUSHEOOMS. 



By "William Earlet. 



THE Edible Mushroom [Agaricus campestris), as 

 it is generally and not inappropriately called, 

 from the peculiarity of its growth, and the esteem 

 it is held: in as a comestible, is hedged around 

 with a large amount of interest. Wayward to a 

 degree, as regards its natural growth in our fields 

 and pastures, it has nevertheless been made perfectly 

 a,raenablet6 certain studied rules of artificial culture; 

 so much so, that the merest tyro may infalHbly grow 

 a crop by accepting these rules, which are very 

 simple , for his or her guidance. 



It is the more necessary for us to refer to this 

 subject in this wise, from the fact that, whereas aU 

 other kinds of vegetables are produced from either 

 seeds, side shoots, buds, or cuttings, all of which 

 tend to strenQ;then or afford tangible evidence of a 

 reasonable probability of success in raising and grow- 

 ing future generations of the same kind, the culture 

 of the Mushroom seems rather wanting in such 



