hen the heat has
subsided sufficiently fill up these holes with finely pulverized dry
loam. With loam we can fill them up perfectly, but we can not do this
with manure, and if left open they remain as wet sweat holes that are
very deleterious to the spreading spawn.

A too high temperature in the beds should be sedulously guarded against,
for it wastes the substance of the manure, dries up the interior of the
bed, and the mushroom crop must necessarily be starved and short.

Provided that the manure is fresh and good and has been well prepared,
if the beds, after being made up, do not indicate more than 100 deg. or 110 deg.
no alarm need be felt, for excellent crops will likely be produced by
these beds. The thicker the beds are the higher the heat will probably
rise in them. Firmly built beds warm up more slowly than do loosely
built ones, and they keep their heat longer. If the materials are quite
cool when built solidly into beds they are not apt to become very warm
afterward. But I always like to make up the beds with moderately warm
manure.

It sometimes happens that circumstances may prevent the making up of the
beds just as soon as the manure is in prime condition, and even after
they are made up the heat does not rise above 75 deg. or 80 deg.. In such a case
if the manure is otherwise in good condition and fresh, it is well
enough and a good crop may be expected. But if the manure, to begin
with, had been a little stale, rotten and inert, I certainly would not
hesitate to at once break up the bed, add some fresh horse droppings to
it, mix thoroughly, then make it up again. Or a fair heat may be started
in such a stale bed by sprinkling it over rather freely with urine from
the barnyard, then forking the surface over two or three inches deep and
afterward compacting it slightly with the back of the fork. Spread a
layer of hay, straw, or strawy stable litter a few inches deep over the
bed till the heat rises. If the manure had been moist enough this
sprinkling should not be resorted to, but the fresh droppings added
instead. When it is applied, however, great care should be taken to
prevent overheating; a lessening or entire removal of the strawy
covering, and again firmly compacting the surface of the bed will reduce
the temperature. Some saltpeter, or nitrate of soda, an ounce to three
gallons of liquid, will encourage the spread of the mycelium after the
spawn is inserted; a much stronger solution of these sa