=Garden and field culture of mushrooms.=--In Europe, in some cases, mushrooms are often grown in the garden, ridge beds being made up in the spring and spawned, and then covered with litter, or with some material similar to burlaps, to prevent the complete drying out of the surface of the beds. Sometimes they are cultivated along with garden crops. Field culture is also practiced to some extent. In the field culture rich and well drained pastures are selected, and spawned sometime during the month of May. The portions of spawn are inserted in the ground in little T-shaped openings made by two strokes of the spade. The spade is set into the ground once, lifted, and then inserted again so that this first slit is on one side of the middle of the spade and perpendicular to it. The spade is inserted here and then bent backwards partly so as to lift open the sod in the letter T. In this opening the block of spawn is inserted, then closed by pressure with the foot. The spawn is planted in this way at distances of 6 to 8 feet. It runs through the summer, and then in the autumn a good crop often appears. CURING THE MANURE. =Selection of manure.=--Horse manure is the material which is most generally used, though sometimes a small percentage of other manures, as sheep manure, is added. In the selection of the manure it is desirable to obtain that which is as fresh as possible, which has not passed through the stage of fermentation, and which contains some straw, usually as litter, but not too large a percentage of straw. Where there is a very large percentage of straw the manure is usually shaken out with a fork, and the coarser portion removed. If there is not too much of this coarse material the latter is often cured in a separate pile and used for the bottom of the beds, the finer portions of the manure, which have been separated, are used for the finishing and for the bulk of the bed. [Illustration: FIGURE 230.--View in mushroom house (L. S. Bigony). View on top of fourth bed, middle tier. Copyright.]