60 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
much manure and cost too much, and they would not be 
any better than with a rougher manure. 
Always preserve the wet, strawy part of the manure, 
along with the droppings, and mix and ferment them 
together, and in this way not only add largely to the 
bulk of the pile, but secure the benefits afforded by the 
urine without reducing, in any way, the strength or fer¬ 
menting properties of the manure. Shake out all the 
rank, dry, strawy part of the manure and lay it aside for 
other purposes. This may be of further use as bedding 
in the stables, covering the mushroom beds after they 
have been made up, or for hotbeds; if well wetted with 
stable drainings, or even plain water, it forms a ready 
heating material. 
Many a time when we have been short of home-made 
manure I have bought some loads here and there from 
different stables in the village, and mixed all together 
and made it into beds with excellent results. Sometimes 
when the manure under preparation had been rather old 
and cool, I have added a fifth or tenth part of fresh 
droppings to it, with very quickening effect in heating 
and apparent benefit to the crop. 
It is generally believed that the manure of entire 
horses is better for mushrooms than that of other horses, 
but positive evidence in this direction has never come 
under my observation. Some practical men assert that 
there is no difference. Mr. John G. Gardner, at the 
Eancocas Farm, who has had abundant opportunity to 
test this matter, tells me that he has given it a fair trial 
and been unable to find any difference in the quality or 
quantity of mushrooms raised from beds made from the 
manure of entire horses and those raised from beds made 
from the manure of other equally as well fed animals. 
But the Parisian growers insist that there is a difference 
in favor of entire horses, especially in the case of hard- 
worked animals such as are engaged in heavy carting. 
