July 28, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
89 
Preparing the Manure .—Nothing but horse droppings and a little 
very short straw should be used for flat beds, and these ought to be 
saved from horses fed on corn and other dry food only. These droppings 
should not be mixed with the straw, and all allowed to heat strongly 
before being separated, as this may spoil the manure by over-heating. 
Keep them apart as much as possible, and protect from heavy rains. 
When enough has been saved to form a good sized bed throw all up into 
a heap to ferment, very gently watering if at all dry. Directly the 
centre of the heap has become hot, and before it attains a white heat, 
turn it inside out, again watering if too dry to ferment properly. 
Repeat this treatment every other day till a fortnight has expired, 
taking care to ward off rains with either a heavy covering of litter, pit 
lights, or tarpaulin. Thus treated the manure will not have lost all its 
vitality, but only got rid of impurities. Decay must still go on after it 
is made into a bed, otherwise there will be no heat generated, and no 
suitable rooting medium for the Mushrooms. 
Forming the Beds. —The beds may be of any length or width, but if 
much more than 4 feet across they are very awkward to get at. Form 
them in layers, thoroughly shaking out the manure, and separating any 
large flakes as the work goes on, also making it solid either by trampling 
or beating with the back of a fork, eventually leaving it about 14 inches 
deep at the back and 12 inches at the front. Plunge two or three trial 
stakes into the beds and frequently examine them. At first the heat 
should rise considerably, and not till it has declined to about 85°, this 
being when the trial stakes can, when drawn out, be borne comfortably 
in the pa'm of the hand should spawning take place. In anticipation 
of this good fresh spawn should be obtained from a reliable source, 
breaking each brick into about eight or ten pieces. Open shallow holes 
with the hand, and not a dibber, the la ter making holes too deep, and 
in which steam may collect to an injurious extent. These holes may be 
about 8 inches apart and angled, the lumps of spawn being pressed in 
flatly and only slightly below the surface, the bed being then smoothed 
over and the spawn further fixed by means of a beating with the back 
of a spade. Return the trial stakes to the bed, and if the heat give no 
signs of rising again soil over in about three days, otherwise delay doing 
so for a week or longer or harm may result. Fine virgin loam, or such 
as separates from the potting turf, is the best that can be used for soiling 
Mushroom beds, and failing this substitute the best fresh soil procurable, 
that obtained from immediately below the first spit of loamy garden 
ground that has not recently been trenched answering well, an even 
thickness of 2 inches of soil is recommended. Should soiling over 
unduly raise the heat in the bed open a few deep holes and let out the 
steam. Directly the heat declines considerably mulch the bed freely 
with strawy litter, this conserving heat and moisture. 
Open-A ir Beds. —The present is a good time to start with these, 
and if prcperly managed they will produce heavier crops of better 
Mushrooms than any under cover. They must be ridge-shaped, and 
should be formed, if possible, where the coldest winds do not reach 
them, though a very hot site is not desirable. Also locate them where 
water does not accumulate, and where neither moles nor field mice have 
ready access, both being liable to upset the Mushroom grower’s calcula¬ 
tions. For these ridge-shaped beds horse droppings alone will not do. 
At least one-third of the bulk of manure used should consist of short 
stained straw, and that quantity is very frequently exceeded with 
advantage. Extra pains must also be taken on the lines already laid 
down in preparing the manure, ridge-shaped beds being more liable to 
become violently hot than those of much les3 depth. A bed may be of 
any length, but should not exceed a width and height of 3 feet, 6 inches 
less each way being the orthodox measurement. It should be duly 
staked out and built up in layers very solidly and neatly, being gradually 
narrowed so as to leave the top about 6 inches across. Give a gentle 
8lope to the ends as well as the sides, as these have to be spawned, and 
comb all down, leaving the straw most exposed, this throwing o£E a 
moderate amount of rainfall. Insert trial sticks, examine, and other¬ 
wise treat as in the case of flat beds, the spawning being carried out in 
a very similar manner all over the bed other than immediately on the 
top, as the mycelium will reach that part fast enough. Guard against 
casing over too quickly, as this may cause a dangerous rise in the heat, 
and necessita'e forming deep holes with an iron rod at short intervals 
■down through the centre of the bed. Use moist soil of the character 
previously advised, and to the same thickness, but do not water and plaster 
it over, or injurious cracking is inevitable. When safe cover heavily 
with long straw litter, arranging this so as to throw off excessive 
rainfall. 
Spawning Melon and Cucumber Beds. —When Melons in 
pits and frames are nearing their ripening period, not much more 
water being needed by the plants, lumps of Mushroom spawn may 
be inserted, not necessarily in the manure, with every prospect of 
abundance of Mushrooms being had later on. When the plants are 
cleared out, mulch the bed with strawy litter, and unless very dry 
there will be no necessity to water the beds, heavy rains being kept 
off by means of the lights. Cucumber beds may be similarly treated 
later on, or say by the end of August. All the sides, when ordinary 
frames are placed on hotbeds generally, should also be spawned at once, 
•and cased over with soil as advised in the case of ridge-shaped beds, 
and further covered with strawy litter, Mushrooms being produced in 
abundance six weeks hence. Even raised Vegetable Marrow heaps 
should be spawned, these sometimes yielding heavy crops of Mushrooms 
both before and after the collapse of the Marrows. In this instance 
nothing beyond inserting lumps of spawn is necessary to insure success. 
gg HE BEE-KEEPER- 
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& 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
The Weather. 
We had two hours of really summer weather on the 17tb, 
very changeable and fluctuating temperature on the 18th, and on 
the 19th another severe storm of wind and rain. The barometer 
rose on that night from 29T0 to 29-90, and we have at last been 
getting more summer-like weather, although still changeable. 
Swarming. 
On the 14th, a stock of bees having one hatched queen and 
two queen cells in a tumbler on the top of the hive separated 
by perforated “ excluder ” swarmed, and was returned. It 
swarmed again on the 15th. The swarm was hived, but the 
appearance of several bees leaving the hive quickly gave evidence 
that there was no queen. I then removed the tumbler containing 
the two cells from the stock and placed it over the swarm in 
their new hive which settled them. On the 17th one of the 
queens was evidently hatched, as it (the swarm) swarmed again, 
but intercepting the queen with a few bees, and removing the 
other queen in the act of creeping out of the cell, put a stop 
to it. This was about midday, and the temperature was so chilly 
that the greater bulk of the bees lay benumbed for about twenty 
minutes, when the weather became warmer, and by two o’clock 
the temperature had risen to 68°, and thus the bees were enabled 
to gather a little honey. By four o’clock the temperature was 
again at 50°. This case proves that neither timely space nor 
excluders will prevent swarming. 
Purity of Bees. 
I have for a considerable time past drawn the attention of your 
readers to the impurity of some of the variety of bees sent to this 
country, as well as what the Americans sell, which do not resemble 
pure breeds. 
I had a visit lately from J. D. Boswell, Esq , 9, Morning- 
side, Edinburgh, a lover of bees, naturalist and botanist to boot. 
He has travelled over the continent, and visited the Italian Alps, 
the home of the Italian Alp bee ; and also Lower Italy, where, 
he says, the insect is not pure, thus corroborating Herman’s 
statement and my own opinion. He also informed me that he 
gathered a rare Fern in Austria, that he had never seen described 
in any work nor observed in any collection. 
Punics. 
Although the weather is still unfavourable for testing the 
superiority of different varieties of bees, it would occupy too much 
space to defer all I have to say till the end of the season, so will give 
my experience from time to time. In every case, and with all people 
who have given them a trial, the Punics are mild tempered, and do 
not propolise more than some other varieties. With the exception 
of crossed Syrians they have as much stored honey as others, 
entering their supers readily, and do not swarm till their hive is 
filled and crowded. I have sometimes thought they were more 
tender than Carniolans, but hardier than Italians, Cyprians, and 
Syrians. Doubtless they raise a great number of queens ; as 
many as fifty to 200 may be found in a hive at one time—a 
feature I do not like. One pure stock hive I examined a month 
previous to swarming had upwards of 200 royal cells, and I do not 
know how long this had been going on, as I saw one only thrown 
out, but since I have observed about six. From the appearance of 
this hive no less than 1000 queen cells must have been raised and 
then destroyed, because piping only began after a month’s work 
of this kind had been going on, and I am inclined to think the old 
queen only issued with the swarm—a good feature certainly, but I 
will make sure and let you know.—A Lanarkshire Bee keeper. 
SENDING BEES BY POST. 
The Editors of another journal state that they “are in a position 
to say that there is no truth whatever” in what I say on June 23rd, 
but, as usual, they do not give any evidence to support their 
assertion, and try to claim what is due to me for Mr. Cowan. 
If these Editors are able to publish a copy of the complaint 
sent to the Postmaster General, calling his attention to the fact 
that I was in the habit of sending bees by post, and asking for the 
law to be enforced, and give their proofs for what they now say, I 
will then publish what I told the P.M.G., which led to a sharp look 
out for packages of bees coming from North Africa as the mails 
reached this country, and which may be somewhat interesting. 
