44 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 428 



rooting. Cuttings treated with Fermate, used dry and as a liquid solution, showed 

 no differences in rooting response. The Stimroot powder contains Spergon, a 

 fungicide, combined with a rooting hormone; while Fermate is a straight fungi- 

 cidal material. Since cutting-rot disease was not prevalent in the propagation 

 bench, little can be said as to the respective merits of these materials. 



Geranium cuttings were treated with Hormodin powder Nos. 1, 2, 3, Telluric 

 rooting powder No. 66, and Rootone. The Hormodin powders No. 2 and 3 con- 

 tain more rooting chemicals than No. 1, hence are recommended for use on woody 

 plants more difficult to root. The purpose in using the stronger hormone powders 

 was to determine whether over-abundance of callus tissue, or injury brought 

 about by too much hormone powder, might cause greater losses from rot diseases. 

 The percentages of cuttings lost from rot were as follows: Hormodin 1, 50 per- 

 cent; Hormodin 2, 47 percent; Hormodin 3, 76 percent; no treatment, 56 percent. 

 Results with the other hormone powders were comparable to those with Hormodin 

 1. The results of these tests indicate that too much root hormone powder, 

 or a highly concentrated powder, may cause cuttings to be more susceptible to 

 rot diseases. 



The treatment of geranium cuttings with copper carbonate and malachite 

 green did not reduce cutting-rot losses in the propagation bed. - 



DEPARTMENT OF FOOD TECHNOLOGY 

 F. P. Griffiths in Charge 



The Nutritive Value of Mushrooms. (W. B. Esselen, Jr., A. Filios, W. H. 

 Fifzpatrick, and E. Weir.) Quantitative data on the amino acid content of 

 mushrooms (Agaricus campestris), obtained by microbiological assay methods, 

 showed that they contain approximately 203 mg. of argenine, 458 mg. of isoleu- 

 cine, 242 mg. of leucine, 144 mg. of methionine, 5 mg. of tryptophane, and 326 mg. 

 of valine per 100 grams on a fresh weight basis. 



The total nitrogen content of mushrooms was about 0.5 percent, of which 63 

 percent was in the form of protein. Purified mushroom protein had a nitrogen 

 content of 11.79 percent. It was concluded that fresh mushrooms contain 

 approximately 2.67 percent of protein. While they are not comparable with 

 such foods as meat and fish as a source of protein, they do compare favorably 

 with some fresh vegetables. 



Commercially canned mushrooms (18 different samples) were found to be good 

 sources of the B-vitamins, averaging 0.249 mg. of riboflavin, L8 mg. of nicotinic 

 acid, and 0.83 mg. of calcium pantothenate per 100 grams of total can content. 

 The biotin content averaged 6.57 micrograms per 100 grams of can contents. 



In the canning of mushrooms, blanching in hot water caused little or no loss 

 of the B-vitamins, but a significant loss occurred during processing. When canned 

 mushrooms were stored for one year, there was some loss of riboflavin but little 

 or no loss of nicotinic acid, calcium pantothenate, and biotin. W^hen fresh 

 mushrooms were cooked by home canning methods, 90.4 percent of the riboflavin, 

 87.4 percent of the nicotinic acid, 86.4 percent of the calcium pantothenate, and 

 50 percent of the biotin were retained. 



Glass Container Research. (W. B. Esselen, Jr., J. E. W. McConnell, J. J. 

 Powers, A. Filios, C. Dubord, and N. Guggenberg.) Added d-iso ascorbic acid 

 did not affect the flavor of asparagus or grape juice canned by commercial 

 methods. The addition of 20 mg. of d-iso ascorbic acid per 100 ml. to bottled 

 grape juice which had been fortified with 50 mg. of l-a^-corbic acid per 100 ml. 



