TOPDRESSING WITH LOAM. 
107 
not as good. No matter how firmly a sod, haying its 
green side down, may he beaten on to a bed of manure, 
there is barely any union between the two; the sod 
merely rests upon the dung, but so closely that the my- 
celium enters it freely. A slight movement or displace¬ 
ment of the sod after the spawn enters it will break the 
threads of mycelium between the manure and the sod, 
and this will destroy the immature mushrooms forming 
in the sod. This gave me a good deal of trouble. Step¬ 
ping on the sod would disturb it. A clump of strong 
mushrooms formed under it sometimes displaces it in 
forcing their way to the surface. 
Sods are only fit for use on flat beds where they can 
lie solid; on rounded or ridge beds they are too liable to 
be disturbed. And the trouble and expense of procur¬ 
ing sods are too great to warrant their use, even if they 
nad any advantages. 
CHAPTER XIY. 
TOPDRESSING WITH LOAM. 
In beds that are in full bearing or a little past their 
best we often find multitudes of very small or what we 
call “ pinhead” mushrooms, that seem to be sitting right 
on the top of the loam, or clumps that have been raised 
a little above the surface by growing in bunches, or what 
we term “ rocks ”; now a topdressing of finely sifted 
fresh loam, about one-fourth to one-half inch thick, 
spread all over the bed, will help these mushrooms ma¬ 
terially without doing any of them harm. But while 
this topdressing assists all mushrooms that are visible 
above ground, no matter how small they may be when 
the dressing is applied, I am not convinced that it 
