PEOCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 167 



MUSHROOMS. 



Prof. Mapes stated that the amount of French mushrooms im- 

 ported into this market had reached a $1,000,000. They are grown 

 in cellars or vaults, with a uniform temperature of 55"^ during the 

 entire 3^ear. Horse manure, from which the long straw has been 

 removed, is pkiced in heaps and allowed to heat to 115°, when 

 the process is arrested and the heap remodeled. At its second 

 beating it is stopped at 105°. The process is repeated until it 

 will not heat above 90°. It is then read}- for the cellar, where it 

 will heat up to 90° and cool gradually to 60°, It is finally covered 

 with very fine earth and the spawn is sown. In about four weeks 

 a white fogdike wet will appear, and in two weeks more little 

 buttons, about the size of peas, which must be removed from 

 the cellar. Then the mushrooms will begin to grow, and ten 

 quarts may be gathered every other day from every twelve feet 

 in length of the beds. The beds will continue to bear for about 

 eight months. He had built two caves five hundred feet long, 

 each, and wide enough for two beds, but the arches being of w^ood, 

 instead of brick, were destroyed the first season. Yet the crops 

 of that season re-paid the entire cost. Some kinds of mushrooms 

 are poisonous in one district and edible in another. If chocolate 

 colored they are edible, and if pink are j^oisonous. 



TRANSPLANTING TREES, 



Mr. Carpenter. — I have this season transplanted evergreen trees 

 every month since April, and with uniform success, both with earth 

 attached and without it. I think the best time to transplant ever- 

 green trees is after they have made about an inch growth. They 

 then seem to receive no check in their growth. Transplanting 

 later seems to prevent their growing, but, nevertheless, they live 

 and do well. I have also found that we may transplant deciduous 

 trees at any time when the soil is open, by taking all the leaves 

 off. I do not approve of watering the tree much after it has been 

 transplanted. Put the ground in good condition, and mulch it, 

 and it is sufficient, unless it is found that a little water is neces- 

 sary to cause the earth to settle among the roots. 



Prof. Mapes. — Mr. Whitlock, who has transplanted thousands 

 of evergreens every week in the year, never waters. 



Mr. Fuller.— A nurseryman never waters a tree when he trans- 

 plants it. 



