APPENDIX. 
DIRECTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION AND SPAWNING OF 
MUSHROOM BEDS. 
The following practical directions for the preparation and spawning 
of mushroom beds have been transcribed from Mr. William Falconer’s 
valuable treatise, “ Mushrooms, and How to Grow Them,” and are ap¬ 
pended in the belief that they will form a valuable supplement to the 
preceding pages: 
PREPARING THE REDS. 
When enough manure has accumulated for a bed, prepare it in the 
following way: Turn it over, shaking it up loosely and mixing it all well 
together. Throw aside the dry strawy part, also any white “burnt” 
manure that may be in it, and all extraneous matter, as sticks, stones, 
old tins, bones, leather straps, rags, scraps of iron, or such other trash 
as we usually find in manure heaps, but do not throw out any of the 
wet straw; indeed we should aim to retain all the straw that has been 
well wetted in the stable. If the manure is too dry, do not hesitate to 
sprinkle it freely with water, and it will take a good deal of water to 
well moisten a heap of dry manure. Then throw it into a compact 
oblong pile about 3 or 4 feet high and tread it down a little. This is to 
prevent hasty and violent heating and “ burning,” for firmly packed 
manure does not heat up so readily or whiten so quickly as does a pile 
loosely thrown together. Leave it undisturbed until fermentation has 
started briskly, which, in early fall, may be in two or three days, or in 
winter, in six to ten days; then turn it over again, shaking it up 
thoroughly and loosely and keeping what was outside before inside 
now, and what was inside before toward the outside now; and if there 
are any unduly dry parts moisten them as you go along. Trim up 
the heap into the same shape as before and again tread it down firmly. 
This compacting of the pile at every turning reduces the number of 
required turnings. When hot manure is turned and thrown loosely 
into a pile it regains its great heat so rapidly that it will need turning 
again within twenty-four hours in order to save it from burning, and 
all practical men know that at every turning ammonia is wasted, the 
most potent food of the mushroom. We should therefore endeavor to 
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