324 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE MUSHROOM. 
mould of tlie bed should often be appealed to, and if it ranges between 
54 and 60 degrees all may be considered safe. 
If the spawn works kindly it may be discovered by moving the 
covering of earth here and there with the finger; and if small white 
threads appear in the mould it is a good sign. This will be visible in 
about three weeks after the bed is put up; and probably, after three 
weeks more, small mushrooms will begin to make their appearance on 
the surface, and the bed may then begin and continue to be productive 
for three or four months afterwards. 
Success very much depends however on the state of the weather 
and attention bestowed in the regulation of the coverings. By these 
the due degree of warmth is maintained, without which the mushroom 
plant never prospers. 
The market gardeners generally raise their mushrooms on beds in 
the open air, made in the ridge manner. They, no more than others, 
are always successful; but as their crops always fetch good prices at 
market the business answers, because it is only making a temporary 
use of the dung which they must have for other crops, whether used 
for mushrooms or not. Sometimes, when it happens that a bed is 
unproductive from losing its heat too soon, they renew the heat by 
covering the whole bed above the coat of earth with hot, well-worked 
stable dung, to the depth of about ten or twelve inches. This appli¬ 
cation causes a fresh fermentation in the body of the bed below, and 
then, when by this means produced, the borrowed covering is removed 
and the ordinary one replaced. This will often recover a sluggish bed 
and render it afterwards prolific. 
As there is more uncertainty in the culture of mushrooms on very 
substantial than on slight beds, many practitioners prefer the latter to 
the former, and would rather have the trouble of making half a dozen 
small beds in the course of the year than two larger to serve for the 
same period. The spawn isoftener destroyed by too much than by too 
little heat. This may take place on a large bed, but it can scarcely 
happen on a small one. We have already alluded to the practicability 
of raising mushrooms in portable boxes filled with fresh dry horse-drop¬ 
pings tightly beaten in, planted with pieces of spawn also well pressed 
down, and then, when it has run through and taken possession of the 
dung, the whole be covered with about two inches of loamy earth well 
pressed together ; and the boxes placed in a warm shed or cellar will 
produce plentifully if tepid water be allowed when the earth becomes 
too dry. This is certainly a very convenient method, and may be 
practised in almost any dwelling-house. So, by making a thin bed of 
worked dung and dry droppings on the lloor of a warm shed, or upon 
