364 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mabch 13, 1860. 
half of best rotten cowdung, and to be mulched thickly 
with Cocoa-nut refuse, and the leaves to be no more 
than six inches apart at planting-out time ”—that is, the 
leaves of one plant from those of the next. Will Mr. 
Fleming or Mr. Henderson give an old friend a new 
lift, and say which of these, or of any other, is now 
accepted as the true kind, as we are threatened with 
a botheration about them, till some nurseryman will get 
the Crystal Palace plant into the market, and as it is 
certain to drive Tom Thumb and all its breed out of 
British gardens ? And country cousins may spare their 
pens till then; for we cannot direct any one where to 
get the kind even for the Experimental without going 
to the Crystal Palace for it. 
Well, the Experimental Garden Trentham Scarlet 
was the next kind to pot after Harlcaway and Baron 
Sugel; for I may as well say the whole is just from what 
has been done there this present month of March, 
the only difference is, that all the old plants of our 
Trenthams were pruned for cuttings, as we do the Golden 
Chains in the spring : yet to look at one of the cuttings 
you might take it for a cutting of Tom Thumb for strength 
and looks. After them were three kinds of minimums, 
which no one knows of out of that garden, and them the 
gardener took to the variegated ones, beginning with 
Lady Plymouth; but Bandy would have been the first 
of that class, if they had it. The same soil, the same 
plunging, and the same spring treatment will be given 
to all these, and to the young of Tom Thumb. Any more 
plunging will be more to save work than that the kinds 
require such extra treatment. D. Beaton. 
THE CULTURE OF MUSHROOMS. 
Me. Ereington has, in former numbers of this periodical, 
favoured us with the details of his practice in Mushroom culture; 
and while it is not my intention to controvert any of his very 
judicious remarks, I wish to say a little on the subject. 
In the first place, I would remark that the quality of the 
horse-droppings which compose the bed is very important to the 
issue. None should be used but those from well-fed horses; 
and those from horses which eat plenty of old Beans and are 
very nitrogenous in quality are decidedly the best, producing 
beautifully shaped white solid fungi. Those, on the contrary, 
produced from horses whose bowels are in a laxative state from 
mashes, &c., should always be avoided. The truth of this opinion 
I have proved for the last few years by buying my droppings 
from a livery-stable keeper in Oxford, whose horses (like their 
riders the undergraduates), have a good deal of hard work to do, 
but, unlike them, eat old Beans almost ad libitum . This material, 
in the proportion of an addition of one barrowful of good sound 
loam, to four of dung, makes a most excellent bed, and its pro¬ 
duce is extraordinary. 
The materials when collected should be spread out in a dry 
airy shed, so that the superfluous moisture may be dried up ; 
and when they become pretty dry the loam may be added and 
the bed made up. 
It is most desirable to prevent undue fermentation, as it weakens 
the bed very much; and therefore, before being made up, the 
droppings should be spread out very thinly, and when formed 
into a bed this should be holed as soon as made, thus preventing 
the exhaustion which must ensue from the first outburst of fiery 
heat. 
I consider it to be of primary importance to prevent the over¬ 
heating of beds for Mushrooms, as it always leaves the droppings 
in an over-dried state, and renders them incapable of bringing 
a fine, heavy, and juicy produce. 
The time which a bed takes to produce Mushrooms after 
spawning, depends upon how warm the bed may be when 
spawned; but it is best to err on the side of coolness, as excessive 
heat destroys the spawn rapidly. I have known beds come into 
production in the space of five weeks after spawning ; but this is 
not a usual occurrence, and the more usual lapse of time is seven 
or eight weeks. When a bed is near its time of bearing, we 
always take care to let it have a watering with tepid water; and 
a fine-rosed watering-pot or a syringe is used for applying it. 
The effect of watering is very prejudicial to the young Mush¬ 
rooms, causing them to damp off very much ; and therefore we 
prefer keeping a moist atmosphere in the house by pouring water 
on the flues, which keeps the beds damp enough for the Mush¬ 
rooms to flourish without the risk of frequent watering. Some¬ 
times, however, it becomes necessary ; and when it is so, we first 
gather closely all the useable fungi, and then apply the tepid 
water, raising the temperature of the house from 55° to 60° for a 
day or two. 
There is one objection to our Mushroom-houses which are 
generally slated on the roof—namely, they become too hot to 
produce good Mushrooms tow r ard the end of May; hut in this 
difficulty we must resort to a good dry cellar, where, from its 
uniformity of temperature, it is easy to get them, indeed at any 
time of the year, and which will stand in good stead both for 
Christmas, and also in July and August. 
I do not think that there is any economy in making spawn ; 
those who can find time and opportunity may, however, do 
so. I prefer purchasing it, and believe that doing so is in a 
parallel as to cheapness with making it. Much that is spurious 
is, however, sold; and it behoves one to look sharply after this 
article, as, if it is not good, it signifies nothing what other pains 
may be taken. 
Some persons are not particular in separating the short straw 
from the droppings. I practise the removal of all of it, and 
think that one can make the bed much more solid and less elastic 
by doing so. It also tends to prevent the beds from producing 
those spurious fungi which frequently are yielded in quantities 
before the regular Mushrooms come, and which tend to weaken 
and exhaust the bed to no purpose. I should be less particular 
in removing every bit of straw from a common, thick, sloping 
bed ; but as the quantity is small which is put upon the shelf of 
a Mushroom-house, the quality cannot be too good to insure 
success. 
I have now passed in review what I deem the chief points of 
necessary good management in producing these delicious fungi. 
To many of my brethren they are knowrn as well as to myself: 
but I trust that in making them I shall induce some amateurs to 
try their hand at their cultivation. It is a far more simple 
business than growing Cucumbers—a feat which so many try at. 
Unlike that cold watery fruit, it yields us one of the most 
nutritious and pleasant flavoured of fungi; and I believe with my 
late noble employer, the Archbishop of York, that “a pound of 
Mushrooms is nearly as nutritious as a pound of beef.” 
Most of the failures of these crops which it has been my lot to 
observe have arisen from want of attention, particularly at the 
time of spawning. Fermenting bodies of such materials are such 
uncertain subjects to deal with at all times as to require great 
and constant attention from the overlooker ; and beds which are 
fully right in temperature when spawned are apt to increase in 
heat after being spawned for a day or two, by filling up the holes 
where the spawn is put in. Fluctuations of temperature may 
cause the mass to chill or overheat, and therefore our vigilance 
cannot be too great. We may err by seldom looking at the bed, 
but we cannot do wrong in frequently examining it. If the heat 
of a bed declines too rapidly, as it sometimes happens, it may be 
made to become warmer by a covering of soft hay. 
IIeney Bailey, Isuneham. 
PROTECTING WALL-FRUIT BLOSSOMS. 
In answer to “ A Subscriber,” I will submit a few remarks 
on this subject; though having already received great attention 
from Mr. Errington and others, I do not expect to be able to 
advance anything new. The first thing necessary to settle, is 
whether protection itself be at all necessary. Some contend, and 
with considerable force, that if the wood were laid in thinly in 
summer, and were well hardened before the winter came, that the 
shoots would be so well supplied with perfect buds, that they 
would suffer little from the frosts of spring, and if more than 
half w T ere cut off, there would be plenty of fruit to thin away 
after all. They also contend that protecting has such a debili¬ 
tating effect on the blossom and the constitution of the tree, that 
the frost that injures the exposed tree, generally also injures the 
protected one, unless the covering is very thick indeed. There is 
so much truth in this, that I am forced to admit that in some 
gardens, where the wood is extra well ripened, the crop of fruit 
in ordinary seasons is as good on the exposed as on the protected 
trees. 
In a very sudden severe frost, however, the exposed trees have 
