A study of mushrooms and mushroom spawn

by Edward Henry Jacob

PREPARATION OF MANURE

Select fresh horse manure where wheat or oats straw has been used as bedding.

Never use old manure or manure mixed with shavings or sawdust.

Place the fresh manure in a neat pile and cover with two or three inches of earth.

In the course of three or four days turn the manure over, shaking and mixing the earth in thoroughly. Add water if necessary to keep the manure in reasonably moist condition.

Cover again with earth which will be sufficient, and allow the pile to heat, through the action of bacteria in the manure, for five or six days. Then turn again, shaking up thoroughly each time, and turning the outer dried or whitened portion of the pile toward the centre. Add water with a sprinkler when necessary to keep plenty of moisture. After about four turnings in this way, covering a period of three or four weeks the manure will be sufficiently rotted and decomposed to make into the beds.