ch
otherwise would pass off.

=J. Burton's Method.= From _The Kitchen and Market Garden_.--Make the
spawn in early spring. As cow manure is the principal ingredient used in
making the bricks this should be secured before the animals get any
green food. Store it on the floor of an open, dry, airy shed, and turn
it every few days for a week or two. Then add an equal part of the
following: Fresh horse droppings, a little loam, and chopped straw,
mixed together. "The whole should then be worked well together and then
trodden down, after which it may be allowed to remain for a few days,
when it will be required to be turned two or three times a week. If the
weather be fine and dry the mass will soon be in a fit condition for
molding into bricks, which process can be performed by using a mold in
the same way as the brick makers, or, ... the manure may be spread
evenly on the floor to a thickness of six inches, and then be firmly
trodden and beaten down evenly with the back of the spade. It should
then be lined out to the required size of the bricks, and be cut with a
sharp spade or turfing iron. In a few days the bricks will be
sufficiently dry to handle, when they should be set up edgeways to dry
thoroughly, and if exposed to the sun for two or three days they will
be ready to receive the spawn. In introducing the spawn two holes large
enough to admit a piece of spawn as big as a pigeon's egg should be cut
in each brick at equal distances. This should be well beaten in and the
surface made even with a little manure. The bricks should then be
collected together in a heap and covered with enough short manure to
cause a gentle heat, being careful that there is no rank heat or steam
to kill the spawn. This must be carefully attended to until the spawn is
found to have penetrated through the whole of the bricks, after which
they should be stacked away in any convenient dry place."

HOW TO MAKE FRENCH (flake) SPAWN.

I can not do better than to let a practical Frenchman engaged in the
business tell this story. In Vol. XIII of the London _Garden_ I find an
English translation of M. Lachaume's book, "The Cave Mushroom," and this
comment by the editor: "The most complete account of the cave culture of
mushrooms which has been published by any cultivator on the spot well
acquainted with the subject is that recently published by M. Lachaume."

Lachaume says: "The best spawn to use is what is called 'virgin spawn';
that is to say,