MAKING THE BEDS
The manure should be placed on the floor or prepared bed spaces to a depth of 8 to 10 inches in winter weather. In warm weather 6 or 7 inches are enough.
The compost should be compressed in making the bed and provided it is not too wet it may be tramped, which prevents too much drying out, while the manure is heating in the beds.
The only practical test of the proper moisture content of the manure at time of making beds, is when upon compression in the hand water cannot readily be squeezed out of it.
After the beds are made up they should be covered and allowed to heat for a week or ten days. After this length of time the temperature should be watched until it falls to 70 degrees, when the beds may safely be spawned. The temperature may be obtained by inserting a common glass thermometer in the manure.
During the process of heating, after the beds are made up, the temperature often rises as high as 125 degrees, and it is never safe to spawn until it falls to 70 degrees.
The above illustration shows how an ordinary cellar may be fitted up either with beds on the floor or arranged in tiers, one above the other, in order to increase the growing surface.