nd Pro

have some at command in the case of unusually severe weather, or a break in the succession of beds, which would cause a deficiency of heat from fermenting materials. A covering of hay or dry litter is necessary for beds formed in the open air, and also for beds made in cool, half-open sheds; but not for those in regularly heated mushroom-houses or caves, in which there is a still, steady temperature. It should be about a foot thick, and should be immediately removed when it becomes wet or mouldy. This covering should be applied whenever the temperature of the bed begins to fall. It should not be used in any case where the temperature will permit of dispensing with it, as it is troublesome, and sometimes encourages insects. The heat of a bed may be reduced by opening holes six or eight inches deep with a thick pointed dibbe

wni

g a good crop. In this respect there do not seem to be so many differences of opinion among mushroom growers. Some, indeed, spawn immediately after the

appear. A better plan is not to finally earth the bed until the spawn is seen beginning to spread its white filaments through the mass; and should it fail to begin to do this in eight or ten days after spawning-the conditions being favourable-it is then better to insert fresh spawn o

warm house, or gentle hotbed, would do as well, but in no case should it be done more than three days before spawning time. At spawning this might with advantage be mixed with some that has not gone through this process. A bushel of the ordinary brick spawn will suffice to spawn about one hundred square feet. All spawn should be inserted near the surface, just buried in the materials of which the bed is made. The thin flakes of spawn which the French use, and which are usually nearly the length and breadth of the open hand, are generally inserted into the bed edgeways, or in a direction slanting upwards, so that while one edge of t

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any British mushroom-grower accustomed to his coatings of mellow loam. It is simply the fine rubbish from the stone breakage moistened, and smoothly and firmly pressed over the beds. We, if shown this on a bed that had failed, would assuredly attribute it to the "stuff" with which the bed was covered, though finer crops than these little beds yield it would be impossible to find. I notice this subject so that failures may be traced to their true causes, and not attributed to matters which really have but slight influence. The final covering of from o

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steadily and patiently applied equably over the whole surface of the bed. Waterings that merely wet the surface and saturate the crevices or lower parts of the bed are of no use. If one drenching is not sufficient to moisten the bed properly, another should be given. The flat form of bed is of course much more easily watered, and is on the whole the best for beds under cover. The position of beds will have a g

n Mushro

d in great numbers, and may be destroyed wholesale by pouring boiling water all along the crack. If the beds be covered with hay or litter, it will be necessary to remove this and allow them time to retreat into their hiding places; and if the beds are made in any position that permits of the woodlice hiding in other places than the interstices round them, these places should be sought out, marked, and receive a searching dose of the scalding water all at the same time. It need hardly be added that, as it is not mushrooms, but creatures that rival ourselves in their love of mushroo

not exceed sixty degrees, and it is in hot, dry, and half-neglected houses that this pest is usually seen in summer. At that season there is little need to g

awning, and remain in bearing from two to five months, according to

nt of O

d we directly do away with them and make fresh ones. Instead of doing this, give the bed a thorough soaking of stable urine and water, at the temperature of 80 degrees, using the urine in the proportion of one part to five of soft water, and adding a wineglassful of salt to each canful;

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ooms should be gathered every morning. In all cases they should be pulled or twisted out, never cut out, so as to leave decaying stumps in the beds.

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ind that after a cave has been in use a certain time, mushrooms cease to be produced in it, should act as a caution in this respect. In summer, when there is no need to attem