March 9, 1882 ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 193 
and have long held a place as show varieties ; but nearly every 
exhibitor grows his own strain and saves his own seed. The 
Lyon has eclipsed all other Leeks wherever it has been shown, 
and has been awarded many prizes. By sowing the seed in heat 
and growing the plants in light but rich soil, carefully avoiding 
any check, and finally planting out into very rich deep soil 
18 inches apart in open trenches, giving a good supply of liquid 
manure every week, especially in dry weather, enormous Leeks 
can be produced by the beginning of December, weighing from 
3 to 5 lbs., and blanched for a length of 14 to 20 inches. The 
plant is quite hardy, a feature often wanting in large Leeks, having 
stood in the open garden here unprotected during the last three 
very severe winters with the temperature sometimes 12° below 
zero.— Jas. Thomson, N.J3. 
[We shall be glad if our correspondent can send us a specimen 
weighing 5 lbs., and blanched for a length of 20 inches.] 
MUSHROOMS DECAYING. 
I CANNOT help thinking there are plenty of us who could 
suggest a remedy for the above, and thereby relieve Mr. Wels- 
ford of some anxiety. Surely the numbers who grow Mushrooms 
successfully have at some time experienced the same difficulty as 
your correspondent. If not, they have been fortunate, and I and 
Mr. Welsford have been exceptions to the rule. Mr. Barter gave 
a few valuable hints upon Mushroom culture, but none of these 
—supposing my failures and Mr. Welsford’s are identical—will 
meet the case. I have frequently used pieces of spawn about the 
size of walnuts, sprinkling at the same time the smaller pieces 
that were left over the surface—the latter in order to secure a 
few early Mushrooms ; and if these are pulled clean off no harm 
will accrue to the principal part of the crop. This practice, how¬ 
ever, I have discontinued, as it is apt to be misleading ; and I 
have for some time discontinued the use of a dibble, preferring 
rather to open the holes for the spawn with the hand. To form 
holes with a dibble sufficiently large for pieces of spawn about 
the size of hen’s eggs, or still larger, as recommended by Mr. 
Barter, they will, of necessity, be made rather deep ; and these 
cavities, which no amount of ramming will close, may, if the bed 
be rather hot and moist, he a source of danger to the spawn. 
The fact of abundance of Mushrooms appearing, however, proves 
the bed was properly spawned, and the only fault to be found with 
the few cultural details given by Mr. Welsford is the temperature 
at which the house was maintained. A temperature “ kept at from 
60° to 65° ” is right enough till the spawn has run, or rather the 
Mushrooms are appearing, but later on is too high, 55° to 60° 
being quite high enough. In a house kept at the former tempera¬ 
tures “ plenty of moisture ” would be necessary, but anxious people 
do not neglect well-known details—on the contrary, are apt to 
overdo it, and unless I am much mistaken this has happened in 
Mr. Welsford’s case. He has syringed too regularly and too heavily. 
When acting as foreman 1 am confident I spoilt more than one 
bed of Mushrooms entirely from misapplied zeal in regard to 
daily syringing the bed, walls, and floor of the house. Had I been 
satisfied with damping the latter all would have been well, but 
the frequent syringing of the bed I have no doubt was the cause 
of the greater part of the Mushrooms collapsing when about the 
size of peas. Excessive moisture, especially if the heat in the bed 
has fallen low, will result in a failure. We this season were 
obliged to form a bed with droppings spoilt by overheating when 
in a large heap of stable manure. They became very hot for a 
time, but soon rapidly declined, and by the time the Mushrooms 
were showing the heat was quite gone ; in fact, it is doubtful if we 
should have secured a crop had we not made a hotbed under the 
bench to warm it. From this bed we commenced gathering 
Mushrooms in abundance about the middle of November, and we 
still continue to pull some. A rather high temperature was main¬ 
tained in order to push on some Seakale and Rhubarb ; yet during 
the whole of the time the bed was syringed three times only, and 
then not heavily, and the walls and floor were only damped 
occasionally.—W. Iggulden. 
As I have grown Mushrooms successfully for a number of 
years a few remarks may not, perhaps, be out of place. First, 
in answer to Mr. Welsford (page 110), as to the cause of Mush¬ 
rooms decaying. When I first commenced growing them I had 
several disappointments just as those detailed in his letter, which 
I attribute to allowing the bed to become too dry after spawning 
and then suddenly watering when the Mushrooms appear, and I 
have no hesitation in saying there are more failures from this 
cause than any other. Mushrooms have been considered very 
difficult to cultivate, but my experience has led me to the oppo¬ 
site conclusion, and instead of being a haphazard crop they may 
be timed to yield at a given period, according to the temperature 
and suitability of the house. For making the beds there is 
nothing so good as droppings from hard-fed horses. These we do 
not have stored up in the ordinary way, but they are allowed to 
remain amongst the litter at the dungheap until there is enough 
for a bed. The droppings and short litter are then shaken out 
and placed in a heap about 15 inches thick on the floor of a shed, 
and turned every morning for about ten days as a rule. In the 
time of turning some judgment is required. For instance, if the 
droppings are from a number of horses and are produced in one 
or two mornings, all being fresh, they will require turning for at 
least a fortnight ; if,, on the other hand, you have only one or 
two horses, a week will be quite sufficient, the object being to 
prevent the bed becoming too hot. In making the beds have the 
material placed on in layers, each layer being beaten firmly down 
until the bed is about 15 inches thick. In four or five days it will 
be ready for spawning. We break a brick of spawn into eight 
pieces and insert them into the bed just under the surface a foot 
apart, care being taken to press the manure firmly round them. 
The whole is then covered with a layer of good soil 1 inch deep, 
rather heavy than otherwise, and beaten moderately. 
I have used almost all sorts of soil, in some cases as an experi¬ 
ment, in others as a necessity. One of the latter cases I will 
mention. During the long frost of the winter of 1879-80 we had 
not sufficient material to soil a Mushroom bed, everything being 
frozen, so we turned out a lot of old Chrysanthemums and used 
the soil, which had been very liberally mixed with ground bones— 
so much so, that when it was spread on the surface of the bed and 
smoothed over it looked more like an asphalt walk than a Mush¬ 
room bed. The results were marvellous, such a crop of large fleshy 
Mushrooms I never saw either before or since. Whether the bones 
had any bearing on the results I cannot say. 
After soiling we never allow the bed to become dry, at the 
same time avoid watering, preferring to syringe the ceiling, walls, 
and floor of the house. But when water is required do not give 
too much at once, but lightly syringe often until it is damped 
through the soil. I have always found the best Mushrooms are 
from the coolest house, providing the temperature is not below 
40°. The best dish of Mushrooms I ever gathered was from a cold 
cellar in the month of January, but generally speaking 50° to 55° 
is the best. I very seldom cover the beds with litter, preferring 
to keep a humid atmosphere.—W m. Plant. 
In reference to Mr. Welsford’s failure in Mushroom growing, it 
appears to me evident that he keeps the temperature much too 
high. Our Mushroom house here is kept at from 50° to 55° and 
never varies much, which is one of the secrets of successful Mush¬ 
room growing. We all must admit that where much fire heat is 
used it necessitates frequent watering, which is most detrimental 
to the spawn. I never have occasion to water my beds in winter, 
at least not until they are nearly exhausted from two to three 
months’ bearing, but I start with a thorough system of damping 
the walls and floor of the house as soon as the beds are spawned. 
The beds are covered with soil about 1^ inch thick when beaten 
down, and this is covered with clean straw, keeping that mode¬ 
rately damp. I never take the covering off altogether, always 
leaving a little straw on while the beds are in bearing, so as to 
keep in the moisture as long as possible and prevent the necessity 
of watering. I prepare the manure in the usual way, but never 
mix soil with it. The quantity of spawn I use is three or four 
bricks to 24 feet square.—C., Stoke-on-Trent. 
CULTURAL NOTES ON PELARGONIUMS. 
Last year I tried an experiment with the plants that were 
struck in March, 1880, and which were for winter blooming the 
same year. About September they were placed in heat in a span- 
roof house with a temperature from 55° to GO 0 . During March 
they were removed to a cooler house at 45° to 50°, where they 
bloomed well. In the middle of July they were removed from 
the house and the blooms were pinched off. They had a little 
top-dressing given to them, consisting of two parts loam, one part 
decayed fowls’ dung, and one part of leaf soil. They were then 
placed near a north wall till about the middle of August, when 
they were removed to a sunny sheltered position where they had 
plentiful supplies of liquid manure to encourage growth. Thinking 
that we might have a few blooms from them early in the autumn, 
as we require plenty of bloom at that time of the year, at the 
end of September they were shifted to the span-roof house again 
kept at the same heat. In November and December they flowered 
most abundantly, some plants in 24-size pots bearing from twenty 
