all glass
exposed to light or heat in any other way should be covered with some
non-conducting material. Rye straw is the best thing for this purpose
that I know of. Indeed, neglect of this simple matter, in cases where
sunlight and heat from hot-water pipes come in contact with the young
mushrooms or mycelium on the surface of the beds, is the cause of many
failures in growing in frames and greenhouses."
=Under Greenhouse Benches.=--Open empty spaces under the stages anywhere
are good places for mushroom beds. However, carefully observe a few
points, to wit: A dry floor under the beds is imperative, for a wet
floor soaks and chills the beds, and renders them unhealthy for the
spawn; but the common earth floor is good enough, provided water does
not stand upon it at any time; if it does, the floor to be under the
beds can be rendered dry by raising it a little higher than the general
level, or using a flooring of old boards. Beds should not be built close
up against hot-water pipes, steam pipes, or smoke flues, as the heat
from these when they are in working condition will bake the parts of the
beds next to them and render them unproductive, and also crack and spoil
the caps of the mushrooms that come up within a foot or two of the
pipes. But this injury from hot pipes and flues can be lessened greatly
by boxing the pipes, so as to shut off the heat from the mushroom beds
and allowing it full escape upward; then the beds can be made, with
safety, up to within a foot of the pipes. As a rule, hot-water pipes are
run around under the front benches of a greenhouse, then it would not be
advisable to make beds under those benches. The middle bench is the one
most commonly free from pipes, hence the one best adapted for beds. It
has more headroom, and therefore easier working facilities. Steam-heated
greenhouses generally present the best accommodations for mushroom beds,
because the pipes occupy less room under the benches than do those for
hot water, and they are always kept higher from the ground.
=Among Other Plants on Greenhouse Benches.=--It sometimes happens that
mushrooms spring up spontaneously among the roses, carnations, violets,
mignonette, and other crops that are grown "planted out" on the benches,
and this is particularly the case where fresh soil had just been used,
in whole or part, for filling the bench beds. These mushrooms come from
natural spawn contained in the loam or manure before they were brought
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