SEPTEMBER. 



t3 



be hot ; but in two or three weeks it will become 

 cool enough to put in the spawn. To ascertain this, 

 thrust two or three sticks into different parts of the 

 bed, and when feeling the sticks, 3^ou ascertain that 

 the heat is below a temperate heat, you may yen* 

 ture to put in the spawrf. It must be planted in rows 

 along the side of the bed ; the first row about six 

 inches from the bottom, the secc«d six inches higher, 

 and so on till the whole is planted; the pieces of 

 spawn about six inches from each other, and about 

 as much in each place as will fill a tobacco pipe. — 

 When the bed is all planted, beat the sides gently 

 with a spade ; cover the bed an inch and a half thick., 

 with rich dry earth, and make this smooth with a 

 spade, as you did the dung before ; cover the bed 

 with long litter or strav/ to keep off the wet effectu- 

 ally ; and as soon as you find there is no darger of 

 the bed becoming too hot in ccnseqvience of the co- 

 vering, increase the covering to the tbickness of a 

 foot. The covering must be examined frequently 

 during winter, and if damaged, must be repaired, as 

 wet will spoil the bed. After the bed has been co- 

 vered three or four weeks, if it become too cool, and 

 the mushrooms come not freely, take oiF the cover- 

 ing (in dry weather) lay w^arm fresh dimg over the 

 bed, about six inches deep, and then replace the 

 covering. In about six weeks the bed will produce 

 plentifully, and continue to do so several months. — 

 If rain falls after the bed is made, and before it is 

 spaw^ned, it must be sheltered well with litter or 

 «traw. 



Spa^vn is generally to be found in old hot beds?;, 

 decayed dunghills, and in pasture fields where m^ush- 

 rooms have grown ; it is a white fibrous substance^ 

 spreading in lumps of rotten dung, and smells exactly 

 like a mushroom. In gathering the spawn, take up 

 with it the dung it is in, and lay them in a dry place, 

 corering them with litter till ycu have enough ga- 



