HOUSE AND GARDEN 
October, 1912 
261 
same time provide just enough of the deli¬ 
cacies through the winter to make them 
always tempting. Some object to raising- 
mushrooms in the cellar on account of the 
odor of the beds, but this objection can 
be easily overcome with a little planning 
and carefulness. Of course if we convert 
half the cellar into a mushroom bed no 
amount of carefulness will prevent the 
odor of the fermenting manure from con¬ 
taminating the air. 
In one corner of the cellar far removed 
from the vegetable bins and storage 
rooms, a cheap wooden partition was put 
up, inclosing a space 10 by 10 feet. A 
door of cheap pine stuff was attached to 
the entrance so that the inclosure could be 
completely shut oft’ from the rest of the 
cellar. The corner was chosen because of 
k cellar window which opened directly 
outdoors to give light and ventilation. The 
inside of the partition was made almost 
windproof by tacking ordinary tar 01- 
builders’ paper in lengthwise strips across 
the boards, using nails with big tin wash¬ 
ers. When the whole of the partition was 
thus covered with the paper from the floor 
to the ceiling, the shelves were put in po¬ 
sition. 
The ceiling of the cellar was seven feet 
from the floor. This gave sufficient space 
for a tier of three shelves, each spaced one 
foot and eight inches apart. The shelves 
ran the full length of the room, but were 
only five feet deep. This left a space in 
front of three feet in which to work and 
get at the shelves. It would admit a chair 
or step ladder to climb on to reach the 
top shelf. 
Ordinary second-hand boards were used 
for the shelves. Some of them were so full 
of knot holes and crevices that pieces of 
old tin had to be laid on top to cover them. 
I11 the center of the tier of shelves up¬ 
right pieces of wood were placed to sup¬ 
port them when loaded. In front of the 
shelves strips of boards ten inches wide 
were nailed to keep the manure and dirt 
from falling out in front. 
With the room partitioned, off from the 
rest of the cellar, and the shelves put up 
in position, work of preparing the beds 
for winter began. These were made in 
the usual way. Twelve inches of good 
fresh horse manure were put on the 
shelves, and this was packed down until 
it occupied a layer only nine inches in 
depth. The mushroom spawn was then 
inserted two inches deep in this, and then 
covered with one-and-one-half inches of 
good garden loam. 
Each shelf was made a separate bed. 
There was a space of eight inches between 
the top of the bed and the bottom board 
of the bed above. This space was just 
sufficient to provide ventilation and the 
necessary amount of light. Each bed was 
ten feet long and five wide, giving fifty 
square feet, but as there were three shelves 
the beds really had a surface area of 150 
feet. The room’s capacity for mushroom 
growing was thus tripled. 
When the door was closed to this room 
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