518 THE KITCHEN GARDEN. [Oct. 
way, with wide alleys between them, and if the whole were to be 
covered with a shed, especially in the middle and eastern states, 
it would be found of considerable advantage in etfectually preserv- 
ing them from too much wet, which is as essentially necessary as 
their preservation from frost. 
If your bed is in a due temperature, the mushrooms will begin 
to appear in about four or five weeks after its being made, and 
with proper care will continue in bearing several months: when you 
find it ceasing to produce, in consequence of cold, lay a covering of 
hot stable dung seven or eight inches, or in hard frosts, near a foot 
thick all over the bed, observing to leave under this, between it and 
the bed, about three inches thick of dry straw, covering the hot 
dung over with the remainder of the straw or litter; this will 
revive the heat, give new action to the spawn, and should be repeated 
as often during winter as it may be found necessary, always observ- 
ing to preserve the bed from wet, cold and frost. 
Sometimes it happens that the beds do not produce any mush- 
rooms till they have lain five or six months, so that they should not 
be destroyed though they do not at first answer the expectation; for 
such frequently produce great quantities afterwards, and continue 
bearing a long time. 
A good bed may continue pi-oductive for three, four, five, or even 
twelve months; but by that time it is generally worn out; the dung 
then makes excellent manure, and the interior part sometimes fur- 
nishes very good spawn. 
The great skill of managing these beds is that of keeping them 
in a proper degree of warmth and moisture, never suffering them to 
receive much wet: during the summer season they may be un- 
covered occasionally to receive gentle showers of rain, when thought 
necessary, and in very dry seasons the beds should be now and then 
opened, gently watered, and covered up soon after; but the summer 
covering need be no thicker than what is necessary to preserve the 
bed from the drying influence of the weather. 
This method of propagating mushrooms by the spawn, or the 
white fibrous radicles, is the most common; but they may also be 
increased by seed. When the latter method is used, the gills are 
cut out and put into the beds: or else they are infused in water and 
the beds sprinkled with the infusion. 
When the bed is in full bearing, it should be examined two or 
three times a week, to gather the produce, turning off the straw 
carefully, and collecting the mushrooms white, and of a moderate 
size: taking care to detach them from the bottom, by a gentle twist, 
pulling the stems out clean, for if broke or cut off, the remaining 
parts would become putrid and full of maggots, and consequently 
infectious to the successional plants. 
Where mushrooms are greatly admired, and expense not consi- 
dered an object, they may be had with more certainty, in greater 
abundance, and in a regular succession, by making the beds as be- 
fore directed, under a range of glass framing, made in the manner 
of a hot-house, or the top sloped both waj'S like the roof of a house; 
in such a place, they could be effectually defended from excessive 
