30 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
pressing out in building the beds. The supporting legs 
of the shelves are also nailed to the face board of the 
lower bed, and this holds them perfectly solid in place. 
The shelf beds are eight inches deep at front, but can 
be made of any depth desired against the walls at the 
back. The cold wall has no injurious effect upon the 
bearing of the bed, and many fine mushrooms grow close 
against the walls. 
The entrance pits are nine and one-half feet deep from 
ground level, three feet eight inches wide, nine feet 
long, and are covered over with folding doors on strong 
hinges, and descended into by means of wooden mov¬ 
able stairs. These dimensions are needed at the end 
where the heating apparatus is placed, but at the other 
end, although it is convenient in handling the manure, a 
space two or three feet less would have answered just as 
well. A close door at either end of the mushroom cellar 
proper separates it from the end pits. The cellar is 
divided in the middle by a partition. This gives, when 
it is in full working order, eight beds, each thirty-one 
and one-half feet long, or a continuous run of 252 feet 
or 756 square feet of surface, and as the beds are re¬ 
newed twice a year this gives 504 running feet of bed, 
or 1512 square feet of surface. A common average crop 
is three-fifths of a pound of mushrooms to the square 
foot of bed, and a good fair average is four-fifths of a 
pound. This would give over a thousand pounds of 
mushrooms a season from this cellar when it is in full 
running capacity. But as the aim is to have a steady 
supply of mushrooms from October until May, and not a 
flush at any one time and a scarcity at another, only two 
beds are made at a time, allowing a month to intervene 
between every two. 
For the two beds, No. 1, preparing the manure begins 
in July, the beds are made up in August, and gathering 
of the crop commences in October; work on the two 
