GROWING MUSHROOMS IM CELLARS. 
23 
On the next day the soil from bed No. 1, spawned four 
days earlier, was thrown upon bed No. 2, and then part 
of the soil that was thrown on No. 1 was thrown back 
again on No. 2, so that now a coating of loam an inch 
and a half deep covered the whole surface of the bed. 
When finished the surface was tamped gently with a 
tamper with a face of pine plank sixteen inches long by 
twelve inches wide. Mr. Gardner does not believe in 
the alleged advantages of a hard-packed surface on the 
mushroom bed, but is inclined to favor a moderately 
firm one. 
He uses the English brick spawn, which is sold by 
our seedsmen. He has tried making his own spawn, 
but owing to not having proper means for drying it, he 
has had rather indifferent success. 
Almost all growers insert the pieces of spawn about 
two to three inches under the surface of the manure, 
one piece at a time, and at regular intervals of nine 
inches or thereabouts apart each way—lengthwise and 
crosswise. But here, again, Mr. Gardner displays his 
individuality. He breaks up the spawn in the usual 
way, in pieces one or two inches square. Of course, in 
breaking it up there is a good deal of fine particles be¬ 
sides the lumps. With an angular-pointed hoe he draws 
drills eighteen inches apart and two and one-half to 
three inches deep lengthwise along the bed, and in the 
rows he sows the spawn, as if he were sowing peach 
stones, or walnuts, or snap beans, and covers it in as if it 
were seeds. 
Mr. Gardner regards 57° as the most suitable tempera¬ 
ture for a mushroom house or cellar, and, if possible, 
maintains that without the aid of fire-heat. He has hot- 
water pipes connected with the contiguous greenhouse 
heating arrangement in his cellar, but he never uses 
them for heating the mushroom cellar except when 
obliged to. By mulching his bed with straw he gets 
