watered from time to time through the fine rose of a watering
pot. Lukewarm water should be used. Nearly all growers water the beds
during the picking of the crop, or during the period of gathering the
crop. At the first few waterings, water should not be sprinkled on the
beds to wet them entirely through. Enough water is applied to diffuse a
short distance only through the upper surface of the bed. At the next
watering, several days later, the moisture is carried further down in
the bed, and so on, through the several weeks, or months, over which the
harvesting season extends. The object of thus gradually moistening the
bed from above, is to draw the crop from the spawn at the surface of the
bed first, and then, as the moisture extends downward, to gradually
bring on the crop from the "fiber" below.

=Gathering the Mushrooms.=--In artificial cultivation, the mushrooms
usually formed are very near, or on, the surface of the bed. In the case
of the meadow or pasture mushrooms, they are formed further below the
surface. This is probably due to the fact that the conditions under
which the mushrooms grow in cultivation are such that the surface of the
bed is more moist, and is less subject to variations in the content of
moisture, than is the surface of the ground in pastures. Although there
may be abundant rains in the fields, the currents of air over the
surface of the ground, at other times, quickly dries out the upper
layers of the soil. But indoors the mycelium often runs to the surface
of the bed, and there forms the numerous pinheads which are the
beginnings of the mushrooms. The beds at this stage often present
numerous clusters of the mycelium and these minute pinheads crowded very
closely together. Hundreds or perhaps thousands of these minute
beginnings of mushrooms occur within a small space. There are very few
of these, however, that reach the point of the mature mushroom. Few only
of the pinheads grow to form the button, and the others abort, or cease
to grow. Others are torn out while the larger ones are being picked.

The time at which the mushrooms are picked varies within certain limits,
with the different growers. Most cultivators, especially those who grow
the mushrooms in houses, consider 60 deg. F. the desirable temperature for
the growth of mushrooms, that is, at a room temperature of 60 deg. (while
some recommend 57 deg.). The temperature of the beds themselves will be
slightly above this. Under thes