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XLII. On a Method of Cultivating the Mushroom. In a 

 Letter to the Secretary. By Mr. William Hogan, 

 Gardener to James Warre, Esq. F. H. S. 



Read January 21, 1823. 



Sir, 



M avi n g devised an easy mode of growing Mushrooms 

 under shelter, which I have practised this season with 

 much success, T am instructed by my master to transmit you 

 an account of it. I have a peculiar pleasure in complying 

 with his directions, for it will be always very agreeable to me 

 to communicate to the Horticultural Society of London any 

 matter in the way of my profession, tending to promote the 

 objects of that institution. 



The exterior form of my bed resembles the old ones as 

 built against a wall, but instead of building it solid, it is 

 hollow : strong stakes are inclined against the wall at an angle 

 of about sixty-five degrees, on which are placed hurdles to 

 support the bed. By this means a cavity is formed under 

 the stakes, between them and the wall and floor, for the 

 purpose of receiving dung, which being readily changed, an 

 opportunity is thus afforded of keeping up a permanent moist 

 bottom heat in the bed, the absence of which, together with 

 an insufficient depth of mould for the spawn to run in, is the 

 great defect of all other modes of raising Mushrooms with 

 which I am acquainted. 



Upon a structure thus contrived, I built two beds, eighteen 

 inches thick, the uppermost four inches of which is mould of 



