SPAWtflKG THE BEDS. 
97 
Imum (120° or ^ver). Where the heat in the middle of 
the bed never veached 115°, the spawn put in when the 
bed was made, and molded over the same day, yielded a 
small crop of mushrooms. A bed* in which the heat was 
declining was spawned at 110°; this bore a very good 
crop, and at 100° and under to 65° good crops in every 
case were secured, with several days’ delay in bearing in 
the case of the lowest temperatures. But notwithstand¬ 
ing these facts, my advice to all beginners in mushroom 
growing is, wait until the heat of the bed is on the decline 
and fallen to at least 90°, before inserting the spawn. 
Writing to me about spawning his beds, Mr. Withing- 
ton, of New Jersey, says: “I believe a bed spawned 
at 60° to 70°, and kept at 55° after the mushrooms 
appear, will give better results than one spawned at a 
higher temperature, say 90°. ” 
Preparing the Spawn.—If brick spawn is used cut 
up the bricks (standard size) into ten or twelve pieces 
with a sharp hatchet, and avoid, as much as possible. 
Brick Spawn Cut in Pieces for Planting. 
making many crumbs, as is the case generally when a 
hammer or mallet is used in breaking the bricks. Extra 
large pieces of spawn are apt to produce large clumps of 
mushrooms, but this is not always an advantage, as 
when many mushrooms grow together in a clump they 
are apt to be somewhat undersized, and in gathering we 
can not pluck them all out clean enough so as not to 
leave a part of the “root” in the ground to poison the 
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