emain several days, so that the
warmth and moisture generated here penetrate the material and soften
somewhat the brick. Some pile it in a room or compartment where there is
little moisture, until the bricks are permeated to some extent with the
moisture, so that they are a little easier broken. They should not,
under any circumstances, be wet or soft in the sense of having absorbed
an excess of water, nor should they be stored for any length of time
where they will be damp. Still others break the bricks into the desired
pieces and place these directly on the top of the bed, at the place
where they wish to plant the piece of spawn. They are left here for two
or three days on the surface of the beds. These pieces absorb some
moisture and take up some warmth from the bed. Then they are planted in
the ordinary way.

=Spawning with Flake Spawn, or Natural Spawn.=--In the use of the flake
or natural spawn, the planting is accomplished in a similar way, but
larger pieces of the spawn are used, two or three times the size of the
pieces of brick employed. Some use a large handful. In some few cases,
the growers use a flake spawn from their own crop. That is, each year a
few beds are spawned from material which has been kept over from the
previous season. This is often kept in boxes, in cool places, where it
does not thoroughly dry out. In this way, the spawn is used over and
over again, until it becomes much less vigorous than natural spawn, or a
spawn which is only one or only a few generations distant from the
natural spawn. This is seen in the less certainty with which the spawn
runs through the bed, in the smaller crop of mushrooms, and their
gradual deterioration in size. Some few practice the method of breaking
down the bed after the crop has been nearly gathered, using this weak
spawn to inoculate fresh beds. This practice is objectionable for the
same reason that long cultivated spawn is objectionable.

=Soiling the Beds.=--After the beds have been planted with the spawn,
the next thing is to soil them. That is, the manure in the bed is
covered with a layer of loam soil, or garden soil, to the depth of two
inches, then spread evenly over the bed, leveled off, and tamped down,
though not packed too hard, and the surface is smoothed off. The time at
which the soiling is done, varies also with different operators. Some
soil immediately after planting the spawn. Others believe that the spawn
will most certainly fail to run