ind its way upon
the market. Sometimes this occurs through unscrupulous dealers, at other
times through their ignorance, or through their failure to know the
quality of the product they are handling.

There are some brands of spawn, that is, those manufactured by certain
houses, which rank very high among those who know the qualities and the
value of good spawn. Some large growers send direct to the manufacturer
for their spawn, and where it is to be obtained in large quantities this
is a desirable thing to do, since the cost is much less. Where obtained
from seedsmen in large quantities, the prices are much lower than where
small quantities are purchased. One of these brands of spawn, the Barter
spawn, is for sale by several different dealers, by Mr. H. E. Hicks,
Kennett Square, Pa., by Henry F. Michell, 1018 Market street,
Philadelphia, and by Henry Dreer, 724 Chestnut street, Philadelphia.
Another brick spawn, known as "Watson Prolific," is for sale by George
C. Watson, Juniper and Walnut streets, Philadelphia. James Vicks Sons,
Rochester, N. Y., and Peter Henderson & Co., New York City, have their
spawn manufactured expressly for their trade.

The Barter spawn is said to be made fresh every year, or every other
year. Instead of the "continued culture" of spawn, that is, inoculating
the bricks each succeeding year from the same line of spawn, which is,
as it were, used over and over again, a return is made each year, or in
the alternate years, to the natural or virgin spawn, which is obtained
from old manure heaps. In this way, the Barter spawn[D] is within two to
three, or four, generations of the natural spawn. The number of
generations distant the brick is from the natural spawn, depends upon
the number of times it may have been multiplied before it is inoculated
into the bricks. That is, the natural spawn is probably first grown in
large beds in order to multiply, to produce a sufficiently large
quantity for the inoculation of the immense number of bricks to be
manufactured. For it is likely that a sufficient amount of natural spawn
could not be obtained to inoculate all the bricks manufactured in one
year. If a sufficient amount of the natural or virgin spawn could be
obtained to inoculate all the bricks of one year's manufacture, this
would produce a spawn removed only one generation from that of natural
spawn.

If the natural spawn were first grown in beds, and from here inoculated
into bricks, this particu