472 THE CENTURY HOOK OF GARDENING. 



LTTTUC 



MAMMOTH WHITE. 



should be made, once or twice a month, so as to ensure 

 a constant succession of plants for putting out. These 

 sowings may be made outdoors, the small seed beds being 

 watered and shaded until germination has taken place. 

 One sowing, made in a small frame near the glass or 

 under a hand-light, of Hardy Green or Paris White Cos, 

 the plants being kept in the frame all the winter, 

 furnishes plenty of sturdy plants to go out towards the 

 end of March as a succession to those planted out in the 

 autumn. Cabbage Lettuces heart in of themselves well. 

 Cos Lettuces are helped to heart in if the leaves be 

 drawn together, not too lightly, with bass. But all good 

 strains naturally heart in if time be given them, and on 

 good soil produce large, solid, white hearts, very lender 

 and crisp. Voting plants should be lilted from seed 

 pans or beds with the aid of a small stick, the soil 

 being watered a iew hours previously to moisten and 

 soften it. The usual rule is to plant in rows about [2in. 

 apart, the plants being the same width apart in the rows. 

 In hot, dry weather il is a good practice to draw shallow 

 drills with a hoe, to Hood them with water, then to plant 

 after the water has well soaked in, rilling loose soil about 

 the plants afterwards to check evaporation under hot 

 sunshine. 



Maize, Green. — An undoubted delicacy in America, yet 

 diis vegetable has not caught on in Britain, the result, 

 probably, of the method of consuming it, w hich is not ton 

 refined. The cobs are gathered whilst the corn on them 

 is green but has somewhat hardened ; these are stripped 

 of their sheaves, trimmed, washed, then boiled, and 

 served to table whole, usually with melted butter. But 

 it is difficult to remove the corn from the stems, except 

 by holding the ends of the cobs in either hand and biting 

 it off. This is hardly an acceptable process. Never- 

 theless this green corn is. when well grown and properly 

 cooked and served, delicious. Any early dwarf variety 

 w ill cob well here if seed be sow n in a pan orshallo v box 

 thinly in April under glass. When the plants are 4in. 

 in height they should be put singly into small pots, and 

 at the end of May thev will be strong enough to pi. nit out 

 singly into mounds 2ft. apart each way, on s. >i] that has 

 been deeply dug ami well manured. Late spring frosts 

 should always be avoided. 



Mushrooms and their Culture. —There are various 



wavs by which these excellent edible fungi may be 

 grown, though in no case can better produce be obtained 

 than Nature brings so lavishly in certain seasons in 

 nieidows and pastures, generally in the autumn. But by 

 the aid of artificial culture Mushrooms may be had 



Beds are made up in succession, 

 winter made perhaps about the 



almost all the year round. The 

 chief need to this end is found in 

 having a properly constructed and 

 heated Mushroom-house, which 

 should ce quite dark, have 

 external air excluded, and be so 

 warmed that a fairly high tem- 

 perature may be obtained all the 

 winter. The best form of struc- 

 ture is a stout lean-to shed erected 

 against the back wall of a vinery 

 or other forcing house, because in 

 such case one back wall serves 

 for both houses, and it is easy 

 to secure from the same heating 

 apparatus the needful hot-water 

 service and heat. A Mushroom- 

 house may be about 9ft. in width, 

 having stout wooden shelves 3ft. 

 wide, and fixed at about 24m. apart, 

 one above the other. In this way 

 there may be a floor-bed and three 

 shelves at the back, and a floor-bed 

 and two shelves in the front. 

 The alley running down between 

 the shelves should be fully 2jft. 

 w ide to enable a wheelbarrow to 

 be brought in for removing or 

 introducing manure and soil. 



the earliest for the 

 middle of August, 

 six weeks as may 

 The shelves should 



and fresh ones each month < 

 be found needful or desirable, 

 each have a stout wooden edge, some 6in. to 8in. deep, 

 to retain the manure when the beds are formed. 

 The manure with which to form a Mushroom bed any- 

 where should be from stables, and only where horses are 

 quite healthy. Using manure from horses taking 

 medicine is very injurious to the spawn, often causing 

 complete failure. This manure should be collected 

 fresh every day, and be thrown into a heap, either under 

 a shed, or, il outdoors, where a few mats can be 

 placed over it to throw off rain. The longer portions of 

 straw should be shaken out and dried lor other use; 

 then, as the heap accumulates, a long stick should be 

 thrust into it to enable its condition as to fermentation to 

 be discovered. When the stick becomes well warmed 

 the heap should be turned, the outer portion being placed 

 within during the process; and should the manure show 

 signs of dryness, a few cans of water should be poured over 

 it with a rose to distribute it thoroughly as the turning 

 proceeds. It may be needful to turn the heap in this way 

 twice or thrice, but the greater care exercised the longer 

 will the bed when made up retain heat, and the more 

 satisfactory will be the spawning. The manure thus 

 prepared should now be placed on one of the Mushroom- 

 house shelves, and be well beaten down ; a solid bed of 

 from loin. l>> I2in., if possible, may be made over the 

 en 1 ire shell. It will certainly settle down 2111. or 3in. 

 later. Then, when the heat is well up, which will be in 

 a few days, but not dangerously - hot, the surface of the 

 bed may be spawned. For this purpose Mushroom 

 spawn cakes sin mlcl lie purchased, either by weight 

 <>r number, from some reliable dealer, and it should 

 be fairly new, or at least not more than a year old. 

 These cakes may be each broken or cut into pieces 

 about the size of a hen's egg, one cake making 

 about eight, and these pieces, with the broad flat side 

 upwards, should be hard pressed into the dung about 8in. 

 apart, all over the bed. Then a coating from |in. to Jin. 

 in thickness of good loamv soil, free from weeds, seeds, 

 an I injects, should be laid on, neatly patted down, and 

 the whole well saturated with tepid water. After drying 

 off a little cover up the bed with the long straw 

 litter shaken from the manure and dried. Occasionally 

 the bed should be examined, and if found dry a gentle 

 watering given, and in from six to seven weeks 

 Mushrooms should appear, and pulling may go on for 



