3-0 Bulletin 240. 



fermenting mushroom surpass in growth and in heahhy color that grown 

 in tlie previously fermented material. This may be due to the fact that 

 during the process of decomposition of the mushroom material in the 

 sand by bacteria simple nitrogen compounds { non-proteid ) in the form 

 of ammonia compounds are formed which are immediately available for 

 plant food by the green plants, while in the mushroom material which 

 was previously fermented some of these simple compounds may be held 

 in a more complex and less available form. If this is so it might explain 

 why the corn and wheat made proportionately more growth than the 

 buckwheat in the material which was fermenting during the period of 

 growth, and also why the sunflower plants were so weakened. That 

 certain of the ammonia compounds may be used by growing corn without 

 nitrification is very probable in view of the work of Maze* who obtained 

 as great an increase in feeding corn with a one-half per cent solution 

 of ammonium sulfate as with nitrate feeding. The other Gramineae also 

 can make use of ammonium compounds without nitrification. 



If the toxic efi^ect of the fermenting mushroom, the material ferments 

 rapidly, is due to the alkalinity of certain of the simple ammonia com- 

 pounds formed during the more active fermentation by the bacteria, this 

 is not manifest in the case of the plants grown in the previously fer- 

 mented material. The simple ammonia nitrogen which is formed during 

 the rapid and early stage of decomposition of the mushroom does not 

 appear to be lost, however, even in the case of the mushroom material pre- 

 viously fermented. As Dr. JMendel's analysis shows one characteristic 

 of the fermented extracts of the mushroom is that fatty acids are present 

 and these probably hold the ammonia compounds formed in the putre- 

 faction of the mushroom which in the case of the putrefaction of animals 

 volatilizes and is lost, since there are no carbohydrate groups present to 

 form the fatty acids and the medium becomes alkaline. The ammonia 

 compounds and the fatty acids probably furnish some of the available 

 food both nitrogen and carbon for Lovinsonf has shown that certain 

 fatty acids can replace to a certain extent the mineral acids in a normal 

 culture solution for autotrophs. 



In conclusion then we can say as a result of these experiments that 

 a portion of the substance of the common mushroom, and probably of 



*AIaze, P., Rechcrclics sur L'inilucncc dc I'azolc nitrique ct de I'azotc ammonia- 

 cal sur le developpement du Mais, Ann. Inst. Pasteur 14, 2.'; 48, 1900. 



See also Soave, M., L'azotoammoniacalc c I'azoto nitrico ncllo sviluppo del 

 mais .^nnali di Bot., 4, 99-114, 1906. 



tL.ovinson, O., Ueber Kcimungs — und Wachsthilmsvcrsuche an Erbscn in 

 Losungcn von fettsaurcn Salzcn untcr .'\usschluss von Mineral-sauren, Bot. 

 Centralb., 83, 1-12, 33-43, 65-75, 97-io6, 129-138, 185-195, 209-2118, 1900. 



