54 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
ter coverings, to prevent draughts and fluctuations o'x 
temperature and atmospheric moisture. This can easily 
be done by making the sides a board and a half (fifteen 
inches), or two boards (twenty inches) high, and cover¬ 
ing over with light wooden shutters, sashes, or muslin 
or paper-covered light frames. See Fig. 11. 
Ammonia Arising.—Ammonia arising from the 
manure of the mushroom beds in the greenhouse may be 
injurious to the other inmates of the greenhouse. If 
the manure has been well prepared before it was intro¬ 
duced into the greenhouse, the ammonia arising from 
it will not, in the least degree, injure any other plants 
or flowers that may be in the house; but if the manure 
is fresh, hot, and rank, the opposite will be the case. 
Beds in greenhouses should always be made up of manure 
that has been well prepared beforehand out of doors or 
in a shed, and as it is brought into the greenhouse it 
should at once be built solidly into the beds. Then 
very little steam will arise from the beds; in fact, it will 
be imperceptible to sight or smell. 
CHAPTER VI. 
GROWING MUSHROOMS IN THE FIELDS. 
Under suitable conditions we can grow mushrooms 
easily and abundantly in the open fields, and the plant¬ 
ing of the spawn is all the trouble they will cause us. 
During the late summer and fall months mushrooms 
often appear spontaneously and in great quantity in our 
open pastures, but in their natural condition they are an 
uncertain crop, as in one year they may occur in the 
greatest abundance, and in the next perhaps none can be 
found in the fields in which they had been so numerous 
