spawned. On the next day the soil from bed No. 1, spawned
four days earlier, was thrown upon bed No. 2, and then part of the soil
that was thrown on No. 1 was thrown back again on No. 2, so that now a
coating of loam an inch and a half deep covered the whole surface of the
bed. When finished the surface was tamped gently with a tamper with a
face of pine plank sixteen inches long by twelve inches wide. Mr.
Gardner does not believe in the alleged advantages of a hard-packed
surface on the mushroom bed, but is inclined to favor a moderately firm
one.

He uses the English brick spawn, which is sold by our seedsmen. He has
tried making his own spawn, but owing to not having proper means for
drying it, he has had rather indifferent success.

Almost all growers insert the pieces of spawn about two to three inches
under the surface of the manure, one piece at a time, and at regular
intervals of nine inches or thereabouts apart each way--lengthwise and
crosswise. But here, again, Mr. Gardner displays his individuality. He
breaks up the spawn in the usual way, in pieces one or two inches
square. Of course, in breaking it up there is a good deal of fine
particles besides the lumps. With an angular-pointed hoe he draws drills
eighteen inches apart and two and one-half to three inches deep
lengthwise along the bed, and in the rows he sows the spawn, as if he
were sowing peach stones, or walnuts, or snap beans, and covers it in as
if it were seeds.

Mr. Gardner regards 57 deg. as the most suitable temperature for a mushroom
house or cellar, and, if possible, maintains that without the aid of
fire-heat. He has hot-water pipes connected with the contiguous
greenhouse heating arrangement in his cellar, but he never uses them for
heating the mushroom cellar except when obliged to. By mulching his bed
with straw he gets along without any fire-heat, but this is very
awkward when gathering the mushrooms.

After the bed has borne a little while it is top-dressed all over with a
half-inch layer of fine soil. Before using, this soil has been kept in a
close place--pit, frame, shed, or large box--in which there was, at the
same time, a lot of steaming-hot manure, so that it might become
thoroughly charged with mushroom food absorbed from the steam from the
fermenting material.

Should any portion of the bed get very dry, water of a temperature of
90 deg. is given gently and somewhat sparingly through a fine-spraying
water-pot rose, or s