48 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
it does, the floor to be under the beds can be rendered 
dry by raising it a little higher than the general level, or 
using a flooring of old boards. Beds should not be built 
close up against hot-water pipes, steam pipes, or smoke 
flues, as the heat from these when they are in working 
condition will bake the parts of the beds next to them 
and render them unproductive, and also crack and spoil 
the caps of the mushrooms that come up within a foot 
or two of the pipes. But this injury from hot pipes and 
flues can be lessened greatly by boxing the pipes, so as 
to shut off the heat from the mushroom beds and allow¬ 
ing it full escape upward; then the beds can be made, 
with safety, up to within a foot of the pipes. As a rule, 
hot-water pipes are run around under the front benches 
of a greenhouse, then it would not be advisable to make 
beds under those benches. The middle bench is the one 
most commonly free from pipes, hence the one best 
adapted for beds. It has more headroom, and therefore 
easier working facilities. Steam-heated greenhouses 
generally present the best accommodations for mushroom 
beds, because the pipes occupy less room under the 
benches than do those for hot water, and they are always 
kept higher from the ground. 
Among Other Plants on Greenhouse Benches. 
—It sometimes happens that mushrooms spring up spon¬ 
taneously among the roses, carnations, violets, mignon¬ 
ette, and other crops that are grown “planted out” on 
the benches, and this is particularly the case where fresh 
soil had just been used, in whole or part, for filling the 
bench beds. These mushrooms come from natural 
spawn contained in the loam or manure before they were 
brought indoors, and which is apt to be true virgin 
spawn. The mushrooms are generally of the common 
kind, grown from brick spawn, but occasionally a much 
larger and heavier sort is produced, and this is the “ horse ” 
mushroom. It is perfectly good to eat, only of coarser 
quality than the other. 
