PREPARATION OF THE MANURE. 
69 
spawn. But we should never use spent hops alone, nor 
so near the surface of the beds that the spawn will have 
to travel through it. 
Spent hops can be had for nothing, and our city brew¬ 
ers even pay a premium to the manure agents to take 
the hops away. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
PREPARATION OF THE MANURE. 
Get as good a quality of fresh horse manure as you 
can, and in sufficient quantity for the amount of bed or 
beds you wish to make. Next get it into suitable con- 
dition for making up into beds. This can be done out 
of doors or under cover of a shed, but preferably in the 
shed. Out of doors the manure is under the drying 
influence of sun and wind, and it is also liable to become 
over-wetted by rain, but under cover we have full con¬ 
trol of its condition. All the manure for beds between 
July and the end of October is prepared out of doors on 
a dry piece of ground, but what is used after the first 
of November, all through the winter, is handled in a 
shed open to the south. During the autumn months 
we get along very well with it out of door* ; after every 
turning cover the heap with strawy litter to save it from 
the drying influences of sun and wind. Remove this 
covering when next turned, and lay light wooden shut¬ 
ters on top of it as a precaution against rain. In the 
shed in winter the manure is protected against rain and 
snow and we can always work it conveniently ; when the 
shed is open to the south—as wagon and wood-sheds 
often are—we get the benefit of the warm sunshine in 
the daytime in starting fermentation in the manure, but 
