268 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



too late; if it is done early enough it is a good preventative. 

 Get an airy location; and, if you have not too many, you can 

 bag your tomatoes. 



Mr. Allyn: How is it they will rot when there comes a rain 

 and they will not rot after that? 



Prof. Green: The tomato is weakened and the dense air 

 makes it liable to disease. 



EDIBLE MUSHROOMS. 



(From Report of 189:5, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.) 



Many methods of cultivating- the common meadow mushroom 

 have been presented by different growers, but all agree as to the 

 value of the general methods in practice. Nearly every farm and 

 nursery affords the conditions necessary to cultivate the ordinary 

 field mushrooms, such as sheltered sheds, stables, and small hot 

 beds for winter cultivation, and melon patches, cucumber pits, etc., 

 for summer culture. 



Mushroom spawn in "bricks" can be easily obtained from the 

 seedsmen. Natural or virgin spawn, which is considered by many 

 experienced growers as preferable to the artificial, can be obtained 

 in most places where horses are kept. It is found in half-decom- 

 posed manure heaps, generally where horse droppings have accum- 

 vilated under cover. It is readily distinguished by its white fila- 

 mentous character, and bj^ its mushroom odor. When dried it can 

 be kept for j^ears. 



Mushrooin beds are easily formed on the floor of sheds, by carry- 

 ing in the fresh stable dung, adding to it about one-fourth of good 

 loam, mixing both together, pressing firmly down, and letting the 

 mass remain about two weeks untouched. By this time the temper- 

 ature will be on the decline, and when it falls to 90° F., break the 

 bricks of spawn into pieces two inches square, and plant twelve 

 inches apart, three inches below the surface. Then cover over to 

 the depth of three inches with good garden soil and press down 

 firmly. 



It is recommended that mushroom beds should not be finally 

 earthed vxntil the spawn is seen beginning to spread its white fila- 

 ments through the mass; and should it fail to do this in eight or ten 

 days after spawning, the conditions being favorable, it is better to 

 insert fresh spawn or to remake the bed, adding fresh materials if 

 it be found to fail from being too cold. 



It is advisable not to put the spawn at any uniform depth, but so 

 that while one piece of it may be at a depth of six inches, or nearly 

 so, others may touch the surface. This allows the spawn to vege- 

 tate at a depth and temperature most congenial to it. Mushrooms 

 may be cultivated in warm cellars, in boxes about four feet square 

 by eighteen inches in depth, for family use. 



