MUSHROOxM GROWING 



mushrooms combined, to a slight degree, 

 with that of powdered almonds, while that 

 of Agaricus fabaceus is of a far more pro- 

 nounced almond or amygdaline type. The 

 odor is largely lost with drying. It would 

 scarcely be practicable to attempt to de- 

 scribe in detail the appearance of "spawn" 

 since that is best gained by experience with 

 it, for once mushrooms are grown and the 

 fresh spawn in the bed examined carefully, 

 there will be no further difficulty in recog- 

 nizing Agaricus spawn. 



Stages of the mushroom. When, in any 

 favorable compost or other substratum the 

 spawn has developed sufficiently and the 

 conditions for fruiting are satisfactory, 

 minute cushion-like areas of growth appear 

 on the large threads. These become spher- 

 ical in form and thus there arise the snow- 

 white pin heads, the first umistakable signs 

 of mushroom production. In a suitable en- 

 vironment, these pin heads grow fairly 

 rapidly in size and are soon recognized as 

 ''buttons," ultimately as mature mushrooms 



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