wonder he wishes to embark in the mushroom ship.

=Cow Manure.=--This is sometimes used with horse manure in forming the
materials for a mushroom bed, and several European writers are emphatic
in advocating its use. But I have tried it time and time again, and in
various ways, and am satisfied that it has no advantage whatever over
plain horse manure, if, indeed, it is as good. It is not used by the
market growers in this country.

The best kind of cow manure is said to be the dry chips gathered from
the open pastures; these are brought home, chopped up fine and mixed
with horse manure. The time and expense incurred in collecting and
chopping these "chips" completely overreach any advantages that might be
derived from them, no matter how desirable they may be. The next best
kind of cow manure is that of stall-fed cattle, to which dry food only,
as hay and grain, is fed. This is seldom obtainable except in winter,
and is then available for spring beds only. This I have used freely.
One-third of it to two-thirds of dry horse manure works up very well,
heats moderately, retains its warmth a long time, also its moisture
without any tendency to pastiness; the mycelium travels through it
beautifully, and it bears fine mushrooms. Still, it is no better than
plain horse manure. The poorest kind of cow manure is the fresh manure
of cattle fed with green grass, ensilage, and root crops; indeed, such
manure can not be used alone; it needs to be freely mixed with some
absorbent, as dry loam, German moss, dry horse droppings, and the like,
and even then I have utterly failed to perceive its advantages; it is a
dirty mass to work, and quite cold.

In the manufacture of spawn, however, cow manure is a requisite
ingredient, and here again the manure of dry fed animals is better than
that of those fed with green and other soft food. But my chief objection
to the use of cow manure in the mushroom beds is that it is a favorite
breeding and feeding place for hosts of pernicious bugs and grubs and
earth worms,--creatures that we had better repel from, rather than
encourage in, our mushroom beds.

=German Peat Moss Stable Manure for Mushroom Beds.=--Although I have not
yet had an opportunity of trying this material for mushroom beds, Mr.
Gardner, of Jobstown, has great faith in it; so, too, has that prince of
English mushroom growers, Richard Gilbert, of Burghley, who relates his
success with it in growing mushrooms in the English garden