GROWING MUSHROOMS IN CELLARS. 
29 
escape of the artificial heat. One might think that the 
hot water pipe under, and so near the bed, would dry it 
up and destroy it, but such is not the case. In a cellar 
of this kind very little fire heat is needed to maintain the 
required temperature, and I do not know where else the 
pipes could be put where they would do the work any 
better and be more out of the way. 
These beds, for convenience in building them, spawn¬ 
ing them, molding them over, gathering the crop and 
watering the beds, and removing the manure after the 
beds are exhausted, are built against the wall and with a 
rounded face, thus giving a three and one-half feet wide 
surface of bed in place of one three feet wide, were it 
built flat. This gain in superficial area is not so impor¬ 
tant as it might seem, for the part immediately next to 
the edge of the pathway seldom yields very much. 
Above these beds a string of shelf beds is arranged 
which runs the full length of both sides of the cellar. 
From the floor of the under bed to the floor of the top 
bed is three feet, and the upper beds are just as wide as 
the lower ones. The shelves for the beds are temporary 
affairs, put up and taken down every year. The cross¬ 
bars rest in sockets in the wall made by cutting out half 
a brick every four feet along the wall, and on upright 
strips or feet one and one-fourth by four inches wide, or 
two by three inches, set under the inside ends of the 
cross-bars and resting on the cement floor close up 
against the lower bed. By having this foot end a quar¬ 
ter of an inch higher than the wall end the heavy weight 
of the. bed is thrown toward the wall. Loose hemlock 
boards set close together form the flooring, for there is 
no need of nailing any of them except the one next to 
the upright face board, which is ten inches wide, and 
nailed along the front, by the pathway, to the posts and 
shelf board. By tilting the weight to the wall the up¬ 
right board is firm enough to hold its place against any 
