OHAPTEK XL 
SPAWNING THE BEDS. 
After the mushroom bed is made up it should, within 
a few days, warm to a temperature of 110° to 120°. 
Carefully observe this, and never spawn a bed when the 
heat is rising, or when it is warmer than 100°, but always 
when it is on the decline and under 90°. In this there 
is perfect safety. Have a ground thermometer and keep 
it plunged in the bed ; by pulling it out and looking at 
it one can know exactly the temperature of the bed. 
Have a few straight, smooth stakes, like short walking 
canes, and stick the end of these into the bed, twelve to 
twenty feet apart; by pulling them out and feeling 
them with the hand one can tell pretty closely what the 
temperature of the bed is. 
All practical mushroom growers know that if the tem¬ 
perature of a twelve inch thick bed at seven inches from 
the surface is 100°, that within an inch of the surface of 
trie oea will only be about 95° indoors, and 85° to 90° 
out of doors. Also, that when the heat of the manure 
is on the decline it falls quite rapidly, five, often ten 
degrees, a day, till it reaches about 75°, and between 
that and 65° it may rest for weeks. 
Some years ago I gave considerable attention to this 
matter of spawning beds at different temperatures. 
Spawn planted as soon as the bed was made (five days 
after spawning the heat in interior of bed ran up to 123°) 
yielded no mushrooms, the mycelium being killed. The 
same was the case in all beds where the spawn had been 
planted before the heat in the beds had attained its max- 
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