144 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM, 
growers make special bargains because they are very par¬ 
ticular about the kind and quality of the manure they 
use. Some of these growers use as much as 2000 to 
3500 tons of manure each a year for their mushroom 
beds. To the caves in the immediate neighborhood of 
Paris the manure is hauled out in carts, but to Merv 
and other places too far distant to be within easy carting 
distance it is sent by rail. The mushroom growers con¬ 
sider that the manure from animals that are worked 
hard and abundantly fed on dry, good food is the best; 
the droppings from these are always dry and rich in 
ammonia, nitrogen and phosphates. The manure from 
entire horses that are worked hard they regard as the 
best, and, next in value, that from mules. The manure 
from horses kept for pleasure, such as carriage and rid¬ 
ing horses, is regarded as poor, notwithstanding the 
high feeding of these animals, and the manure from 
horses fed on grass or roots, also that of cows, as worth¬ 
less. Stress is laid on the importance of having a good 
deal of urine-soaked straw in the manure, and this is 
another reason why manure from draught horses is pre¬ 
ferred to that from animals kept for pleasure, as the 
bedding of the former is not apt to be kept so clean as 
that in aristocratic stables. 
The preparation of the manure is conducted near the 
mouth of the caves or shafts on a level, dry piece of 
ground, and altogether out of doors. As soon as suffi¬ 
cient manure for a pile is obtained it is forked over, 
thoroughly shaken up and intermixed, divested of all 
extraneous matter such as sticks, stones, bottles, scrap 
iron, old shoes, and the like we find in city stable ma¬ 
nure, and any dry straw is moistened with water. It is 
then squared off into a heap forty inches high and trod¬ 
den down to thirty inches high. In this state it is left 
for about six days, when it is turned, shaken up loosely, 
the outside turned to the inside, and all dry parts 
