No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 227 



to them that I know how and they still have not come, and I suppose 

 never will. 



COL. DEMMING: The question was asked because I have had 

 some experience in raising mushrooms, and I found out by mj 

 experience that there are some 1,100 varieties in the United States, 

 and of the 1,100 varieties only ten are poisonous. I found, further- 

 more, that the greatest enemy of the mushroom is the wild rabbit. 



MR. SHARPLESS: The wild rabbit don't get into our mushroom 

 houses, and we have no trouble on that score. We don't grow toad- 

 stools and there is not any danger of getting poisonous toadstools 

 mixed with marketable mushrooms. The great majority of fungi 

 are edible and some of them are better than the mushrooms. 



Questions and Answers on Prof. Robinson's Paper. 



G. R. HENDRICKS: In the ordinary way of sowing clover seed 

 on top of the soil exposed to the rays of the sun, is its usefulness 

 impaired as an inoculative agent? 



PROF. ROBINSON: For practical purposes, no. There will be 

 enough bacteria uninjured to perform the office required. 



MR. HENDRICKS: The Department of Agriculture in one of their 

 circulars state that the inoculating material could be made up at a 

 few cents per gallon. Why do the seed men ask two dollars per 

 gallon? 



PROF. ROBINSON: With reference to making up the solution 

 in which the bacteria are grown, the "few cents a gallon" refers only 

 to the cost of the nutrient salts, and does not include the production 

 of the pure culture necessary as a "starter/' As to the price of two 

 dollars a gallon asked by the seed men, I think I can state that in 

 another season the expense will be very much lower. Of course com- 

 mercial production with advertising, postage, etc., entails expense 

 that is higher than the expense to the Agricultural Department; stiM 

 the expense is bound to come down very much. 



MR. WAYCHOFF: Can simple directions be given by which the 

 ordinary farmer can propagate his own nitro-cultures economically? 



PROF. ROBINSON: That is impossible for the reason that the 

 cultures can only be produced in a bacteriological laboratory. Of 

 course when he has a dry culture for a starter with the special di- 

 rections accompanying it he can make up his liquid culture, in a 

 large amount at little expense. 



