MUSHROOM. IVIushooms are eaten by every civilized nation, when fresh, forming a delicate and palatable food. The difficulty in obtaining non-poisonous kinds, and the distress ing and sometimes fatal effects of eating poison ous fungi deter many persons from using them at all. Nevertheless, a person may soon come to be able to determine between the poisonous and non-poisonous kinds. Prof. Peck, the New York State botanist, gathered eighty species there and Dr. Curtis, of North Carolina, has tested a list which we give further on. A species of morel, a peculiar, round, pock-marked fungus, is found growing under oak trees in northern Indiana and other oak openings in the West. The genus Agarieus, however, is the species generally cultivated. Mushrooms are propagated from spawn, sold in the form of bricks, and made as follows : A quantity of fresh horse-dung, mixed with short litter, is composted with one third part of cow-dung, and a small portion of good loam. This compost is eut up into bricks, which are to be set on edge, and frequently turned, until they become half dry. Then a couple of holes are to be made in each, by means of the dibble, and in each hole is to be put a piece of spawn as large as a walnut. When the bricks are dry, they must be piled upon a layer of dry horse-dung, six inches thick, and covered with sufficient fresh dung to produce a gentle heat through the whole. As soon as the spawn has spread itself through the bricks, the process is ended, and they may be stored in a dry place, where they will preserve their vegetative powers for many years. Beds for the culture of mush rooms are constructed in several different ways. Sometimes they are in the open air, when they require a covering of boards to prevent injury from cold or wet weather; at other times, in hoxes or baskets, in pits or frames, in sheds or rnoderately warm cellars; and again, in mush room houses. The latter are decidedly the best, when the necessary expense may he justified. 'I bey are.sheds built in a dry place, ten feet wide, and of any length desired. A walk runs through the center, so as to accommodate a bed on each side of four feet in width. In the first place, it is necessary to procure a sufficient quantity of good horse dung, and make it up into a heap, which must be turned frequently to induce regular fermentation. In a fortnight all the
rankness will probably have escaped, when it will be time to build the bed. The dung should be well shaken by the fork, and built up with perpendicular sides to the height of twelve inches, and then gradually drawn to the center like the roof of a building. In a mushroom house, the beds should be three feet high on the back side, sloping toward the walk. Every forkful is to be well beaten into its place, so that the sides of the bed be even and firm. Cover the dung with long straw or litter, in order to exclude frost and prevent the escape of the volatile gases. In the course of ten days, or a fortnight, the temperature will be sufficiently reduced, and the covering is to be removed in order that one inch of fine loam may be laid upon the dung. On this plant the spawn, which has been brcilten into pieces of the size of a walnut, in rows six inches apart each way. Put on a seeoud inch of mold, which, after being beaten smooth by the spade, must be protected by the covering of straw. Where the bed is in the open air, it will need mats during stormy weather. Guard against the extremes of heat and cold, and of drought and moisture. A medium tempera ture is probably somewhere about 60° The covering of straw must vary in thickness from three to twenty-four inches, according to circum stances. When the mold appears too dry, a gentle application of tepid water should be given in the morning; in summer, this may be neces sary every other day, but in winter perhaps once a month. After each watering, the covering ought not to be replaced for some fifty or sixty minutes. If the operation he successful, young mushrooms may be expected in about five or six weeks after the date of spawning, although from a variety of causes, the time is frequently much longer. Where the bed has been kept too hot and moist, the spawn may have been destroyed; but, in many cases, it requires only a little extra warmth, or a gentle sprinkling of water.° pro duce a generous crop. In gathering mushrooms, after the straw has been removed, each one is drawn up by a gentle twist of the fingers, and the hole is then filled with earth. A knife ought never to be employed, because the stumps left in the ground become nurseries of maggots, which prove very destructive to the succeeding growth.