EARTHING OVER THE BEDS. 
103 
. And there is a current idea that mushrooms will not 
thrive in beds in which old manure abounds, either in 
the loam or fermenting material; that it kills the myce¬ 
lium. This, too, I must refute. I have seen heavy 
crops of spontaneous mushrooms come up in violet and 
carnation beds in winter, and where the soil consisted of 
at least one-fourth of rotted manure well mixed with 
the earth. In cucumber and lettuce beds the same 
thing has taken place. And in similar beds that have 
been planted artificially with spawn, good crops of mush¬ 
rooms have also been raised, and the mycelium, instead 
of evading the lumps of old manure in the soil often 
forms a white web right through them. 
CHAPTER XIII. 
EARTHING OVER THE BEDS. 
This is an important operation in mushroom-growing, 
and the one for which loam is indispensable. It con¬ 
sists in covering the manure beds, after they have been 
spawned, with a coating, or casing as it is more com¬ 
monly called, of loam. The spawn spreads in the ma¬ 
nure and rises up into the casing, where most of the 
young mushrooms develop, and all find a firm foothold. 
The loam also contributes to their sustenance. And it 
protects the manure, hence the spawn, from sudden 
fluctuations of temperature, and preserves it from undue 
wetting or drying. 
The best soil to use for this purpose is rich, fibrous, 
mellow loam, such as is described, page 100. 
If the manure is fresh and in good condition and the 
beds are in a snug cellar or closed mushroom house, I 
would not case them until the second week after spawn- 
