18 



MUSHROOM GROWING AND SPAWN MAKING. 



the other hand, for control purposes, with spawn from pure cultures. 

 The duration of the experiments was two months. Some of these 

 pots were watered with a mineral nutrient solution including as one 

 constituent magnesium phosphite, designated A', others with the same 

 solution to which was also added a small quantity of dried blood, 

 designated Y, and the remainder with pure water. The results are 

 tabulated as follows: 



Table III. — Extent of growth of spores and spaxcn in pots. 



Spores 

 Spores 

 Spawn 

 Spawn 

 Spawn 



Cattle ma- Fresla stable: g.^^j^ OW^^\-ble ! qj^ ^^^^^ 

 nure,old. ^^|°,^^|. j manure. ^^|^^^^|. , manure. 



fa — Good ... None ! Slight None ' None. 



lb— None do do ' do do. 



fa— Good ... Very good. do I do do.. 



\h— Do. do do ' do do.. 



/a— Slight .. Slight i None I do do. 



\6— Do. .....do Slight... .'_-.. do do.. 



fa— None... None Good ' do ' do.. 



-..-do Slight----'.--. do do.- 



Slight do. --.'---. do ----do-- 



do I None L.. do do.. 



b— Do. 

 a— None 

 6— Do. 



I 



Fertilizer. 



Y. 

 Y. 

 X. 

 X. 

 Y. 

 Y. 

 X. 

 X. 



None. 

 Do. 



TISSUE CULTURES. 



The suggestion which had presented itself of using bits of living 

 tissue from a sporophore instead of spores seemed also, from general 

 observations, to be of sufficient importance to Avarrant a thorough 

 trial. During moist weather, or in a moist cellar where mushrooms 

 are being grown, one will frequently find that an injury in a young 

 mushroom is rapidl.y healed by a growth of hyphse from the edges 

 of the injured area. The same thing had been noted in the open in 

 the case of putt'balls. In many instances, moreover, pure cultures 

 of fungi in other groups have been obtained by the use of small bits 

 of a sclerotial mass of tissue. Accordingly, a young sporophore of 

 Agaricus campestris was obtained, and after breaking it open longi- 

 tudinally a number of pieces of tissue from Avithin were carefully 

 removed with a sterile scalpel to a sterile Petri dish. A number of 

 cultures were then made by this tissue-culture method on a variety 

 of nutrient media, such as bean pods, manure, leaf mold, etc. From 

 this and from numerous other similar tests it was ascertained that 

 when the mushrooms, from which the nocules of tissue are taken, 

 are young and healthy, there is seldom an instance in which growth 

 does not result. It was easily shown that failure to grow was gen- 

 erally due to the advanced age of the mushroom used, to an unfavor- 

 able medium, or to bacterial contamination. 



The first successful pure cultures were made by this method during 

 the early spring of 1902 from mushrooms grown indoc^rs. During 



