20 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
rooms. A light wooden frame covered with calico or 
oiled paper would also make a good top for the boxing, 
only it would not be proof against much cold, or rats or 
mice. If desirable, in warm cellars, shelf beds could be 
built above the floor beds, but in cool, airy cellars this 
would not be advisable. 
Manure beds in the dwelling-house cellar may seem 
highly improper to many people, but in truth, when 
rightly handled, these beds emit no bad odor. The 
manure should be prepared away from the house, and 
when ready for making into beds it can be spread out 
thin, so as to become perfectly cool and free from steam. 
When it has lain for two days in this condition it may 
be brought into the cellar and made into beds. Having 
been well sweetened by previous preparation, it is now 
cool and free from steam, and almost odorless; after a 
few days it will warm up a little, and may then be 
spawned and earthed over at once. Do not bury the 
spawn in the manure, merely set it in the surface of the 
manure ; this saves the spawn from being destroyed by 
too great a heat, should the bed become unduly warm. 
This, if the manure has been well prepared, is not likely 
to occur. The coating of loam prevents the escape of 
any further steam or odor from the manure. 
On the 14th of January last, Mr. W. Robinson, editor 
of the London Garden , in writing to me, mentioned the 
following very interesting case of growing mushrooms in 
the cellar of a dwelling house : “1 went out the other 
day to see Mr. Horace Cox, the manager of the Field 
newspaper, who lives at Harrow, near the famous school. 
His house is heated by a hot-water system called Keith’s, 
and the boiler is in a chamber in the house in the base¬ 
ment. The system interested me and I went down to 
see the boiler, which is a very simple one worked with 
coke refuse. However, I was pleased to see all the floor 
of the room not occupied by the boiler covered with 
