lts can now be
used than would be safe to apply after the mycelium is running in the
bed.

When loam and manure mixed together comprise the materials of which the
bed is made, the temperature is not likely to rise so high as when
manure alone is used, but this matters not so long as the materials of
which the bed is composed are sweet and fresh and not over-moist. But if
the materials are cold and stale treat as recommended for a manure bed,
always bearing in mind that it is better to have a cold bed that is
fairly dry than one that is wet, or, indeed, a warm one that is wet.

Mr. Withington, of South Amboy, has a good word to say for beds of a low
temperature. He writes me: "Our beds kept in good bearing two months,
though they have borne in a desultory way a month longer. Our best bed
this season was one that was kept at an even temperature. The manure
never rose above 75 deg. when made up, and decreased to about 60 deg. soon after
spawning. Kept the house at 55 deg.."

CHAPTER X.

MUSHROOM SPAWN.

What is mushroom spawn? Is it a seed or a root? Do you plant it or sow
it, or how do you prepare it? are some of the questions asked me now and
again. To the general public there seems to be some great mystery
surrounding this spawn question; in fact, it appears to be the chief
enigma connected with mushroom-growing. Now, the truth is, there is no
mystery at all about the matter. What practical mushroom growers call
spawn, botanists term mycelium.

The spawn is the true mushroom plant and permeates the ground, manure,
or other material in which it may be growing; and what we know as
mushrooms is the fruit of the mushroom plant. The spawn is represented
by a delicate white mold-like network of whitish threads which traverse
the soil or manure. Under favorable circumstances it grows and spreads
rapidly, and in due time produces fruit, or mushrooms as we call them.
The mushrooms bear myriads of spores which are analogous to seeds, and
these spores become diffused in the atmosphere and fall upon the ground.
It is reasonable to suppose that they are the origin of the spawn which
produces the natural mushrooms in the fields, also the spawn we find in
manure heaps. But we never have been able to produce spawn artificially
from spores, or in other words, mushrooms have never been grown by man,
so far as I can find any authentic record, from "seed." How, then, do we
get the spawn? By propagation by division. We take t