754 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Of'T. 1. 



MUSHROOMS— HOW TO TELL THE GOOD ONES 

 FROM THE POISONOUS, ETC. 



A SEASON ABI>E COMMUNICATION. 



For several years past, at about this season 

 of the year I have noticed an abundance of 

 mushrooms or toadstools in the pastures about 

 here, especially among the pine-trees. The 

 cattle seem to consider them a great luxury. I 

 have but one cow, and I have watched her 

 gather them by the hour. Now, it seems to me 

 that, if these had been toadstools, the cow 

 would have been poisoned past recovery. What 

 is your opinion about it '? Only this week I saw 

 in the New York Tribune an account of a fam- 

 ily poisoned by eating a mess of mushrooms in 

 which was found to have been cooked but a 

 single toadstool. Now, it seems to me that, if 

 toadstools are so extremely poisonous, these 

 that my cow makes a business of eating each 

 season must be mushrooms. What is your 

 opinion? How can I be sure which they are? 

 The old woman's test was, to eat them; and if 

 you lived they were mushrooms; and if you 

 died, they were toadstools. I should like a sure 

 test, but still a different one. Would it not be 

 well for you to give an antidote for toadstool 

 poison? N. LuMAN Gerkish. 



Nottingham Center, N. H.. Sept. in. 



[Friend G., if mushrooms are in your locality 

 so plentiful that the cows are eating them up, 

 you ought to have a bonanza. They are worth 

 in most city markets from 50 cts. to a dollar a 

 quart. Even those that grow wild are usually 

 sold for about half as much. There is no doubt 

 that those you mention are the edible mush- 

 rooms. At certain times during the present 

 dry weather they have been quite plentiful, 

 even around here; but they must be gathered 

 promptly or else they become wormy. I do not 

 know what the customary rules are for detect- 

 ing the poisonous from the other; but the old 

 woman's remedy is all straight, only you must 

 not eat enougJi to kill you. Have your wife 

 cook some, anil taki! one taste and set the dish 

 away. If no unpleasant symptoms follow, the 

 next meal you can eat more, and after that eat 

 heartily of them if you choose. In this way 

 the scientists experiment to determine whether 

 the new varieties are fit for food. Now, my 

 description of the edible kind would be: First, 

 they are, when fresh, pink on the under side. 

 Toadstools are white all over, and especially on 

 the under side. The edible kind has a pleasant 

 smell, as if it were good to eat. When they 

 first burst out of the ground they are pink on 

 the under side; but if they are not gathered 

 until the sides open out so the top is nearly flat, 

 then the under side becomes black. These 

 black ones are just as good for food, but they 

 are very apt to become wormy. On breaking 

 them open, if you see the worms have hatched 

 out don't use them. When the edible kind first 

 break the ground they are round like little 

 balls, with a hole in one side where the stem is 

 attached. These young ones are very nice, but 

 it is a waste to take them when they are so 

 small. I presume much of the danger comes 

 by letting children, or somebody who is care- 

 less, mix in the white toadstools. A careful 

 person should gather them, and then the cook 

 should carefully examine them. When you are 

 out in the woods, and have not any dinner with 

 you, you can make a very nice dinner of mush- 

 rooms — that is, if you can find them. Just 

 build a fire in some safe place where you won't 

 burn up property. When you have got a bed 

 of coals, just set your mushrooms on them, with 

 the hollow or open side up. As soon as they 

 begin to cook, this cup will become full of a 



rich juice. If you have a little salt along,, 

 sprinkle it in this juice and it will make a 

 delicious gravy for the mushrooms. It seems 

 too bad that so much really valuable food 

 should go to waste simply because of the ig- 

 norance of the people in regard to its value. 

 We consider them fully as good as oysters, and 

 they are the best substitute for meat of any 

 vegetable that grows. We shall have to de- 

 pend on some of the doctors who read Glean- 

 ings, for a remedy. I do not see how people 

 can be poisoned unless they eat very freely of 

 the poisonous kind; and I would advise all who 

 wish to learn to eat mushrooms, to eat sparing- 

 ly at fii'St. If you are sure they agree with you,- 

 eat more, and so on. As to whether the poison- 

 ous kind would hurt a cow, I can not answer; 

 but I hardly think a cow would eat toadstools. 

 It would take a good many more to poison a 

 cow; and perhaps what would be poison to us 

 would not be so to so large an animal. I once 

 fixed some Indian meal and arsenic to kill rats. 

 The cow got at the dish and ate it all up with 

 much evident satisfaction. In great fright I 

 consulted our family physician: but he told me 

 it wouldn't hurt her. and it didn't.] 



LIMA BEANS, strawberries, ETC. 



Dear Bro. Root: — In " High-pressure Garden- 

 ing" in Gleanings for Sept. 1 you speak of 

 "all kinds of lima beans standing drouth and 

 yielding a fair crop." I planted several rows 

 of pole limas in good ground, well fertilized 

 with wood ashes They grew rank, and blos- 

 somed profusely, but didn't yield a tenth of a 

 crop. Burpee's bush limas did some better. 

 They had no wood ashes. Bush beans planted 

 on the west side of my stable, shaded the early 

 part of the day, planted in ground enriched by 

 rotten manure, but not with wood ashes, yield- 

 ed enormously. Were the ashes the cause of 

 failui'e? 



I have a seedling strawberry that sprang up 

 in the garden, that had leaves on 4 inches wide 

 and 41^ inches long. I have the Sharpless and 

 Crescent strawberry-plants. But this seedling 

 has stood better in the hill, borne larger leaves, 

 and is supporting more plants (over 30) from 

 runners than any strawberry plant on the place. 

 It blossomed profusely but bore no fruit: so, as 

 it is quite secluded from other plants I set out, 

 it must be pistillate. I intend to try it another 

 year to see what it is worth. 



I have three hives of Italian bees. I had to 

 feed them for winter. Not content with that, 

 they pitched on to a weak colony of a neighbor's 

 and took its honey, then began on five of his 

 other stands. His were black bees. I told him 

 to close up his hives to half an inch, but it was 

 no use; his bees woulrln't fight. So, to save my 

 neighbor's apiary I sent my bees to a friend two 

 miles in the country to winter, and that ended 

 the robbing. Rev. W. E. Dean. 



Tunnelton, W. Va., Sept. 2. 



[Fri( nd D., I hardly think it was the wood 

 ashes that prevented your pole limas from bear- 

 ing. Ii might be, however, that it was. Our 

 lima bians always bear. 1 do not know that 

 we "vei had the ground too rich for them unless 

 it was wlien I tried to raise them down on the 

 creek lottom. They grew there, but they did 

 not bear any beans of any account; while upon 

 our clay hills, where the ground is heavily ma- 

 nured, we always get heavy yields. Your bush 

 beans were probably a variety that always 

 yields any way. Was not your new strawberry- 

 plant ou very rich ground ? It seems to me it 

 is a little strange that it does not bear at all. 

 Even if this late variety bears imperfect ber- 

 ries, if you get it to bear fruit we shall be very 

 glad to "hear further from it.J 



