[Illustration: Fig. 10. Russian mushroom-house.]
The Russian mushroom-house (fig. 10) is thus described by Mr. Oldacre, in the _Horticultural Society's Transactions_, vol. ii. first series. "The outside walls should be 8½ feet high for four heights of beds, and 6½ for three heights, and 10 feet wide inside the walls. This is the most convenient width, as it admits of shelves 3½ feet wide on each side, and affords a space through the middle of the house 3 feet wide, for a double flue and a walk upon it." Hot-water pipes were not in use when this house was erected. "The walls should be 9 inches thick, and the length of the house as may be judged necessary. When the outside of the house is built, place a ceiling over it (as high as the top of the walls) of boards 1 inch thick, and plaster it on the upper side with road sand well wrought together, 1 inch thick, (this will be found superior to lime), leaving square trunks, _f_, in the ceiling 9 inches in width, up the middle of the house, at 6 feet distance from each other, with slides, _s_, under them, to admit and take off air when necessary. This being done, erect two single-brick walls, _v v_, each five bricks high, at the distance of 3½ feet from the outside walls, to hold up the sides of the lower beds, _a a_, and form one side of the air-flue, _t u t u_, leaving 3 feet up the middle, _t x t_, of the house for the floor. Upon these walls, _v v_, lay planks, _t u_, 4½ inches wide and 3 inches thick, in which to mortise the standards, _t k_, which support the shelves. These standards should be 3½ inches square, and placed 4 feet 6 inches asunder, and fastened at the top to the ceiling joists. When the standards are set up, fix the cross-bearers, _i n i n_, that are to support the shelves, _o o_, mortising one end of each into the standards, _n_, the other into the walls, _i_. The first set of bearers should be 2 feet from the floor, and each succeeding set 2 feet from that below it. Having thus fixed the uprights, _t k_, and bearers, _i n_, at such a height as the building will admit, proceed to form the shelves, _o o_, with boards 1½ inches thick, observing to place a board, _d d_, 8 inches broad and 1 inch thick, in the front of each shelf, to support the front of the beds. Fasten this board on the outside standards, that the width of the beds may not be diminished. The shelves being completed, the next thing to be done is the construction of the flue (_p_ in section), which should commence at the end of the house next to the door, run parallel to the shelves all the length of the house, and return back to the fireplace, where the chimney should be built; the sides of the flue inside to be of the height of four bricks laid flatways, and 6 inches wide, which will make the width of the flues 15 inches from outside to outside, and leave a cavity, _t u_, on each side betwixt the flue and the walls that are under the shelves, and one, _x y_, up the middle, betwixt the flues, 2 inches wide, to admit the heat into the house from the sides of the flues." The introduction of this form of house by Mr. Oldacre has led to much improvement in our mushroom culture. The first house of this kind erected in England, was built at Shipley, near Derby, in the garden of E. M. Mundy, Esq., by the father of Mr. W. P. Ayres, whose name will be found frequently mentioned in this work. There brick arches were formed for the shelves, and though built more than half a century ago, the house is still in good condition.