110 Southern Gardener^s Practical Manual 



years later — while collecting agricultural statistics for 

 the Georgia State Department of Agriculture, Augusta 

 reported boastfully that they had shipped that season 

 sixty thousand melons. Now there are more car-loads 

 shipped from the South in a season than melons in 1876. 



MUSHROOM 



This is but little grown in private gardens in this 

 country, partly because of the absence of suitable condi- 

 tions required for success, but mainly owing to the 

 liability of mistaking poisonous kinds for the edible. A 

 careful study of the specific characteristics of the edible 

 kinds may readily overcome the latter difficulty, but the 

 fact is that very few do this, and hence this vegetable is 

 not grown. It is so highly appreciated by some that they 

 seek it during warm, moist spells in summer in the fields 

 and old pastures. 



MUSTARD 



Two varieties of this pungent plant are commonly 

 grown in the vegetable garden, viz.: the White and the 

 Black. The White is preferred for salad and greens, the 

 small bud leaves for cold salad and the larger leaves for 

 boiling. They are both hardy annual plants of the 

 brassica family, highly prized by some, but largely 

 superseded by kale and spinach. The mustard flour of 

 commerce is made principally of the seed of Black mus- 

 tard, though the seed of the White variety is sometimes 

 used for that purpose. The seed of the White variety is 

 used whole as a seasoning for pickles. The most common 



