44 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



THE GROWING OF MUSHROOMS. 



USH ROOMS are anything but widely appreciated as food 

 in America. And yet there is no country richer in 

 mushroom food, growing spontaneously, than is ours. 

 Were the people of Germany, Italy, France, or Russia 

 to see our clearings during the autumn rains thev would 

 feast on the rich food which in many places here goes 

 to waste. It is the epicures of America, in fact, who 

 appreciate this food, paying fancy prices for it in the markets. 



The economic value of mushroom diet is placed as second to meat alone. 

 With bread, and mushrooms properly prepared, a person may neglect the 

 butcher during the season when this growth may be gathered. Mushrooms, as 

 Professor Palmer has stated, make the same use of the air we breathe as is made 

 by animals ; when cooked they resemble no other form of vegetable food, and 

 in decay their odor in some cases cannot be distinguished from that of putrid 

 meat. Certain it is that the parasol like growth used for food, and which springs 

 up in a night, is not a plant in any sense. It is rather analogous to a flower, 

 bearing, as it does, the spores that are analogous to seeds. The true plant 



Fig. 721. — The Common Mushroom.s [Arjaricus campestris). 



which feeds, grows and finally prepares to flower, is the network of whitish 

 threads which form what is commonly known as the "spawn," or, botanically, 

 the mycelium of the mushroom. 



It is to the garden or indoor culture of the Common Mushroom, Agarkus 

 vampestris, shown in our engraving, that we desire here to call attention. There 

 is an ease and novelty about this business which should make it attractive, not 



