hrooms grow close
against the walls.

The entrance pits are nine and one-half feet deep from ground level,
three feet eight inches wide, nine feet long, and are covered over with
folding doors on strong hinges, and descended into by means of wooden
movable stairs. These dimensions are needed at the end where the heating
apparatus is placed, but at the other end, although it is convenient in
handling the manure, a space two or three feet less would have answered
just as well. A close door at either end of the mushroom cellar proper
separates it from the end pits. The cellar is divided in the middle by a
partition. This gives, when it is in full working order, eight beds,
each thirty-one and one-half feet long, or a continuous run of 252 feet
or 756 square feet of surface, and as the beds are renewed twice a year
this gives 504 running feet of bed, or 1512 square feet of surface. A
common average crop is three-fifths of a pound of mushrooms to the
square foot of bed, and a good fair average is four-fifths of a pound.
This would give over a thousand pounds of mushrooms a season from this
cellar when it is in full running capacity. But as the aim is to have a
steady supply of mushrooms from October until May, and not a flush at
any one time and a scarcity at another, only two beds are made at a
time, allowing a month to intervene between every two.

For the two beds, No. 1, preparing the manure begins in July, the beds
are made up in August, and gathering of the crop commences in October;
work on the two beds, No. 2, begins in August, the beds are made up in
September, and the mushrooms gathered in November; preparing for the two
beds, No. 3, begins in September, the beds are made up in October,
gathering commences in December; for the two beds, No. 4, work begins in
October, the beds are made up in November, and the crop is gathered in
January; for the two beds, No. 5 (No. 1 renewed), work begins in
November, the beds are made up in December, and the crop is gathered in
February; for the two beds, No. 6 (No. 2 renewed), work begins in
December, the beds are made up in January, and the crop is gathered in
March; for the two beds, No. 7 (No. 3 renewed), work begins in January,
the beds are made up in February, and the crop is gathered in April; for
the two beds, No. 8 (No. 4 renewed), work begins in February, the beds
are made up in March, and the mushrooms gathered in May. After this time
of year the summer heat renders mu