and keep it myself rather than submit it to the mercy of the
seed store.

=New Versus Old Spawn.=--How long spawn may be kept without its vitality
becoming impaired is an unsettled question, but there is no doubt, if
properly kept, it will remain good for several years. But I can not
impress too strongly upon the reader the importance of using fresh
spawn. Do not use any old spawn at any price; do not accept it gratis
and ruin your prospect of success by using it. It takes three months
from the time when the manure is gathered for the beds until the
mushrooms are harvested. Can you, therefore, afford to spend this time,
and undergo the care and trouble and expense, and court a failure by
using old spawn? We have risks enough with new spawn, let alone old
spawn. I do not use any more old spawn, but I have used it often and
long enough to be convinced of its general worthlessness, unless
preserved with the greatest care.

=How to Distinguish Good from Poor Spawn.=--This is a very difficult
matter, notwithstanding what people may say to the contrary. If we could
positively tell good from bad spawn, we would never use bad spawn, and,
therefore, with ordinary care, have very few failures in
mushroom-growing; for good spawn is the root of success in this
business. Spawn differs very much in its appearance; sometimes the
bricks show very little appearance of the presence of spawn, and still
are perfectly good; and again, we may get bricks that are pretty well
interlaced and clouded with bluish white mold or fine threads, and this,
too, is good. When the bricks are freely pervaded with pronounced white
threads this is no sign that the spawn is bad. Bricks dried as hard as a
board may be perfectly good; so, too, may be those that are
comparatively soft. Mushroom spawn should have a decided smell of
mushrooms, and whatever cobweb-like mold may be apparent should be of a
fresh bluish white color, and the fine threads clear white. Prominent
yellowish threads or veins are a sign that the mycelium had started to
grow and been killed. Distinct white mold patches on the surface of the
bricks indicate the presence of some other fungous parasite on the
mushroom mycelium; the absence of any mushroom smell in the spawn
indicates its worthlessness and that the mycelium is dead. One familiar
with mushroom spawn can tell with considerable certainty "very living"
spawn and "very dead" spawn, but I am far from convinced that any one
can decid