the beds. The workmen build the
beds by piece-work and receive one-half cent per running foot. A good
workman can make 240 feet a day (_Lachaume_). The beds are built neatly
and firmly and with much nicety as regards size and proportions. But the
workmen do not use a fork or any other tool in the construction of the
beds; they lift, shake up, spread and build the manure with their naked
hands and pack it firm with their knees.

The spawn is obtained from the working beds and is what the mushroom
growers there call "virgin" spawn, though not at all what we know by
that term. As a succession of beds is kept up all the year round it is
an easy matter for the growers to get their spawn at any time. The best
time to get the spawn is when the young mushrooms are first appearing. A
bed or part of a bed in capital working order is selected and broken up
and the cakes of manure thoroughly matted up with the active mycelium
are selected for spawning the fresh beds. It is asserted that from this
active spawn crops of mushrooms appear in twenty days' less time than if
dry spawn were used.

The French spawn is used. Somewhere between the seventh and fourteenth
day after making the bed it will be in condition for spawning. Break the
spawn into pieces between two and three inches long, two inches wide,
and three-fourths of an inch thick, and insert these pieces in two rows
along the sides of the ridges; the first row eight inches above the
ground, the second row eight inches above the first, and the pieces put
in quincunx fashion eight inches apart in the row. The manure is firmly
packed in upon the spawn, the surface left smooth and even and without
being further disturbed until earthing time.

Much stress is laid upon stratifying the spawn before using, when dry
spawn is employed. About eight days before a bed is to be spawned the
dry spawn is spread out in a row on the floor of the cave or cellar so
that it may absorb moisture and the mycelium begin to run. At spawning
time these cakes or flakes are broken up and used in the ordinary way,
and, it is claimed, with a week's difference in favor of the early
appearing of the mushrooms. But no more spawn than is necessary for
immediate use should be stratified, for it will not bear being dried and
damped again.

The chips and powder of the stone which has been taken out of the quarry
and which can be had in abundance on the floor of the quarry or on the
surface of the ground around