^♦l us H ROOM. 



iu breadth, made of good s lout plunk, vviJi a fiout board of iibie or 

 ten inches depth to keep in the dnng and the earth. Whoever has 

 seen the berths in a barrack-room, or in the state-room of a ship, 

 has seen precisely what the shelves of a German mushroom-house 

 are. These shelves are to be filled with the dung or compost in 

 which you are to plant 3 our mushroom spawn; and, as to preparing 

 compost, you proceed in this manner : take a quantity of fjesh 

 horse-dung, with as little long Utter as possible ; the less the 

 better ; that has not been exposed to wet, and that has not fer- 

 mented ; mix it with a fourth part of fresh mould, and, if you can, 

 get the scrapings of a horse-track of a mill-house of any sort ; mix 

 all well together, and, in your shelves, or in as many of them as 

 you mean to put to work at once, put a layer six inches thick of 

 this mixture, beating it down as hard as you can with a wooden 

 bat. This will reduce it down to the thinness of four inches, or 

 less. Then put in another layer, rather less thick, and beat that 

 down in the same way ; observing that, towards the wall at the 

 back part of your shelf, you can alford to increase the thick- 

 ness of your layers, as there is the wall to support them ; and 

 the thicker you make these layers, the stronger will be the bed. 

 Having done this, observe the fermentation from day to day, as 

 it goes on, and when it is palpably on the decline, make a parcel 

 of holes in the compost at from six to nine inches asunder, and 

 put in the spawn ; and then cover it over with a covering of mould 

 about an inch thick. Water may be given out of a very fine- 

 rosed watering-pot, when the weather is very warm, and then 

 it is recommended to scatter a little straw over first, and water 

 on that, the mushroom being inclined to rot from any over quan- 

 tity of moisture, however little. These beds are not generally of 

 long duration, but particularly those in the shelves. From eight 

 to twelve weeks may be looked upon as a good duration, and there- 

 fore, to have mushrooms continually , there must be renewals of 

 the beds, in the house and out of the house ; but a very little 

 attention brings it to a regular system in the in-door method. 

 The times when the vegetation of this fungus is most successful 

 are the spring and fall, as with every vegetable. To procure 

 spawn, you need only apply to the seedsmen, almost all of whom 

 sell it ; but you may procure it and propagate it yourself, by be- 

 stowmg a little care and attention on it. I>ig up, io August or 

 September, a parse) of mushrooms, taking a good three or four 



