76 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
would fork over the surface of the bed a few inches deep 
to let the heat escape, and after a couple of days com¬ 
pact the bed again. Boring holes all over the surface of 
the beds with a crowbar is the common way of reducing 
a too high temperature, and when the heat has subsided 
sufficiently fill up these holes with finely pulverized dry 
loam. With loam we can fill them up perfectly, but we 
can not do this with manure, and if left open they re¬ 
main as wet sweat holes that are very deleterious to the 
spreading spawn. 
A too high temperature in the beds should be sedu¬ 
lously guarded against, for it wastes the substance of 
the manure, dries up the interior of the bed, and the 
mushroom crop must necessarily be starved and short. 
Provided that the manure is fresh and good and has 
been well prepared, if the beds, after being made up, do 
not indicate more than 100° or 110° no alarm need be 
felt, for excellent crops will likely be produced by these 
beds. The thicker the beds are the higher the heat will 
probably rise in them. Firmly built beds warm up 
more slowly than do loosely built ones, and they keep 
their heat longer. If the materials are quite cool when 
built solidly into beds they are not apt to become very 
warm afterward. But I always like to make up the 
beds with moderately warm manure. 
It sometimes happens that circumstances may prevent 
the making up of the beds just as soon as the manure is 
in prime condition, and even after they are made up the 
heat does not rise above 75° or 80°. In such a case if 
the manure is otherwise in good condition and fresh, it 
is well enough and a good crop may be expected. But 
if the manure, to begin with, had been a little stale, 
rotten and inert, I certainly would not hesitate to at 
once break up the bed, add some fresh horse droppings 
to it, mix thoroughly, then make it up again. Or a fair 
heat may be started in such a stale bed by sprinkling it 
