1 26 
FORCING MUSHROOMS. 
beds iii gardens; thus, when the spawn begins to run, a 
spurious breed is often found to precede a crop of genuine 
Mushrooms. The poisonous toad-stool, Jlgaricus cirocus, 
may generally be detected by the presence of a sickly, nau 
seous smell, though some hurtful kinds are so free from any 
thing disagreeable in the smell, as to make any criterion, 
drawn from that alone, very unsafe. The wholesome kinds, 
however, invariably emit a grateful, rich odour. . The Jlga- 
ricus campestris is most generally cultivated. Dr. Withering 
mentions other eatable varieties, which grow considerably 
larger, but are inferior in flavour ; he says “ that a plant of 
the variety Georgia was gathered in an old hot-bed at Bir- 
mingham, which weighed fourteen pounds ; and Mr. Stack- 
house found one fifty-four inches in circumference, having a 
stem as thick as a man’s wrist.” 
Mushrooms may be obtained at any season of the year, 
by a proper regulation of the time and manner of forming 
the beds. A good crop is sometimes collected without ma- 
king a bed on purpose, by introducing lumps of spawn into 
the top mould of old hot-beds. 
The methods of procuring and propagating spawn, and 
of forming Mushroom beds, are numerous. Indigenous 
spawn may be collected in pasture lands in September and 
October, or it may be found in its strength and purity in the 
paths of mills worked by horses, or in any other horse-walks 
under shelter; it is frequently found in old hot-beds and 
dunghills in the summer season, and Mushrooms of good 
quality may often be seen beginning to form on the surface, 
like large peas ; when these are absorbed, it is time to take 
out the spawn, which is generally in hard, dry lumps of dung, 
the spawn having the appearance of whitish coarse pieces 
of thread. The true sort has exactly the smell of a Mush- 
room. If spawn thus collected be required for immediate 
use, it may be planted in the beds at once, or it will keep 
three or four years, if laid to dry with the earth adhering to 
it, and afterw ard placed in a warm, dry shed, where there 
