.104 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
ing, say about the eighth or tenth day; but were thesfc 
same beds in an open, airy shed or other building 1 
would case them oyer some days earlier, say the fourth 
or fifth day. A fear is often expressed that when beds 
are cased within three or four days after being spawned 
the close exclusion of the manure from the air is apt to 
raise the heat of the manure in the bed, and thereby 
destroy the spawn ; but I have never known of any truth 
in this theory, and with well-prepared manure I am sat¬ 
isfied no brisk reheating takes place, at least the ther¬ 
mometer does not indicate it. The great danger of 
early casing is in killing the spawn by burying it too 
deep in damp material and before it has begun to run 
through the manure. 
I have conducted seyeral experiments in order to sat¬ 
isfy myself regarding when is the proper time to case 
the beds, and haye found no difference in results between 
beds that were cased oyer as soon as they were spawned 
and others that were not cased over until the fourth, 
seventh, tenth, or fourteenth day after spawning. The 
good or bad results in the time of casing depend on the 
condition of the manure in the beds, the depth at which 
the spawn has been inserted, the openness or closeness 
of the place in which the beds are situated, and other 
cultural conditions. But to delay casing as late as the 
fifteenth or sixteenth day after spawning is injurious to 
the crop, because in applying the covering of soil we are 
sure to break many of the mycelium threads that have 
by this time so freely permeated the surface of the ma¬ 
nure. After the fourth week little white knots may be 
observed here and there on the spawn threads; these 
are forming mushrooms, and to delay casing the bed 
until this time would smother these little pinheads, and 
greatly mar our prospects of a good crop. 
Peter Henderson, m his invaluable work, “ Gardening 
for Profit,” has given rise to a deep seated prejudice 
