226 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



acid and potash and what vegetable matter there may be of which 

 the manure is composed. I thought at first that this manure was 

 of very little value; I do not think yet it is of very much value, 

 still it may have some value. Last fall we hauled it out and spread 

 it with a manure spreader on two fields, and this spring I can dis- 

 tinctly see the marks across one of the fields where this manure 

 went, whether it is a matter of the humus or whether it is the phos- 

 phoric acid and potash that is left in it I can't say, although potash, 

 as a rule, does no good on our place at home. I don't know whether 

 there are any other points that I should have covered that I have 

 not covered, but if you will ask me questions I will try to answer 

 them. 



COL. HEMMING: I would like to ask if Mr. Sharpless ever found 

 poisonous mushrooms coming up in his beds? 



MR. SHARPLESS: Yes, some little fellows came up, but nobody 

 would mistake them for mushrooms at all; they are differently 

 constituted. There is a wonderful variety of little fungi that grow 

 up, long, hairy, beautiful little growths that grow to about that 

 height, of white filmy stuff that also got little cups. They grow up 

 to about one-eighth of an inch in height and form little black seeds 

 in there. They come up sometimes with a round top that reaches 

 down an inch or more, but nobody would ever mistake them for 

 mushrooms, in fact, the edible variety of fungi is large. The ordi- 

 nary puff ball wdiich grows in the field, which sends out a sort of 

 smoke when you step on it, in its earlier stages, is said to be a great 

 deal better than the mushroom. The mushroom in the condition 

 in which we pick it to send to market must be in a button form. 

 If you send them down to market open they will tell you to pick 

 them sooner, and yet nothing that I know of ever gets to perfection 

 until it gets pretty nearly ripe. Your apple is not good until it is 

 ripe, nor your peach nor your pear; neither is your mushroom. 

 When we want to eat some at home we always pick out those that 

 are ripe, but you can't send that kind to market. I think there is no 

 danger whatever of ever raising any poisoned toadstool in your mush- 

 room beds. 



MR. SCHWARZ: During how long a season can you cut them? 



MR. SHARPLESS: About from three to four months will take 

 your crop out. Now while you are on that question, I will say this 

 much further about the American spawn. From a bed of American 

 spawn, as I said, I got three successive crops of very fine mushrooms 

 and then they quit, absolutely quit; so I took the English spawn, and 

 re-spawned those beds, and that was in Janaury, and they have 

 not come yet. T presume the temperature has been too low for the 

 spawn to run, although I have watered them and done everything 



