42 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
ering with hay or boxing oyer and covering the boxing 
with hay or matting, to keep a mushroom bed in a cool 
house warm and free from marked changes in tempera¬ 
ture; but it is a difficult matter to keep a mushroom 
bed in a hothouse cool enough and prevent sudden rises 
in temperature. 
On Greenhouse Benches.— It sometimes happens 
that the beds are formed on the greenhouse benches, and 
the mushrooms occupy the same place that might be 
assigned to roses or any other planted-out crop. The 
beds on the benches are made one board deep, that is, 
eight to ten inches of short, fresh manure, and otherwise 
as in the case of beds anywhere else. After the beds 
are spawned and cased with soil, by covering them over 
with a layer of straw litter or hay, sudden drying out of 
the surface is prevented, and in order to further prevent 
this drying it is a good plan to sprinkle some water 
over the mulching every day or two, but not enough 
to soak through into the bed. About the time the 
young mushrooms commence to show themselves, remove 
the mulching and replace it with a covering of shutters 
raised another board’s height above the bed, or with 
strong calico or plant-protecting cloth hung curtain- 
fashion over the beds. The accompanying illustration, 
Fig. 12, for which I am indebted to Henry A. Dreer, of 
Philadelphia, gives an excellent idea of how mushrooms 
may be grown and cared for on greenhouse benches. 
This illustration, Mr. Dreer writes: “is made from a 
photograph of a crop grown on the greenhouse benches 
at the Model Farm, by Mr. McCaffrey, gardener to J. E. 
Kingsley, Esq., of the Continental Hotel. . . . No 
covering of litter is used, but the requisite shading on 
sunny days is secured by the use of cotton cloth stretched 
over the top of the bed, as shown in the engraving.” 
My principal objection to mushroom beds on green¬ 
house benches is their liability to frequent and marked 
