H0CK1NGS' GARDEN MANUAL. 



41 



conditions to be carefully observed, the attention to 

 which would be amply repaid by an abundant crop. 

 The bed must not be too hot or too cold, too dry, and 

 especially not too wet. Experience alone, it is pre- 

 sumed, would enable the novice to determine the 

 happy medium. Excessive heat and too much wet 

 are, however, the two great evils to guard against ; 

 and any person having a spare corner of a cellar, 

 outhouse, or stable, can supply himself with mush- 

 rooms either in beds or boxes. As mushroom spawn 

 is not to be purchased in Queensland as it is in 

 England, one of the most approved methods of pro- 

 curing spawn artificially will be given, with such modi- 

 fications as the climate demand : Take two barrow- 

 loads of cow dung, one load of sheep, and one of horse 

 dung ; dry them well ; then break them quite small, so 

 as they may go easily through a coarse garden sieve. 

 When well mixed together, lay them up in a round 

 heap, finishing at the top in a point. It is to be under- 

 stood that the operation is to be conducted in a dry 

 shed. Observe to tread the heap as it is put up, 

 which will greatly save it from heating too much : 

 the best adapted and most productive heat is from 55° 

 to 60° Fahrenheit. The heap is to be covered with 

 horse litter, in a state of fermentation, to the thickness 

 of four inches all over, if made in the winter ; but in 

 the summer clean old bags would be better, as the 

 least over heat would spoil the heap. In this state let 

 it lie one month ; then throw the litter a little on one 

 side, thrust the hand into the heart of the heap and 

 take out a handful \ if the spawn has begun to run you 

 will observe numerous small white fibres or threads 

 through the dung ; if not begun to run, cover the heap 

 up again. The spawn thus procured is of the very 

 best description, but will not keep. 



Growing mushrooms in boxes : Each box may be 

 three feet long, one and a-half foot broad, and seven 

 inches in depth. Fill each box half full of fresh horse 



