CHAPTER XX. 

 MUSHROOM CULTURE. 



Before considering the subject of mushroom culture, 

 it may be well to make some reference to this edible 

 fungus, a genus much larger and more important as a 

 food than generally supposed. 



Dr. Badham, an English authority upon fungi, 

 states that hundreds of tons of rich, wholesome food 

 go to waste daily in England, because of ignorance 

 and superstition. 



In England there are, at least, forty species of edi- 

 ble mushrooms, and in the United States many hun- 

 dreds. In the State of North Carolina alone, there are 

 one hundred and twenty species of fungi, many of them 

 obtainable over a season of nine months. Mountain and 

 plain, valley and forest, are swarming with a profusion of 

 nutritious food going to decay because of the ignorance 

 of the public. 



The soil for earth fungi and the wood for forest 

 fungi, however, has much to do with flavor, as occasion- 

 ally a most excellent variety proves to be unpalatable, 

 and even offensive. Of forest or tree fungi, those grow- 

 ing on the mulberry and on the hickory are generally of 

 the best flavor. Dr. Curtis, of South Carolina, is, per- 

 haps, among Americans, the most venturesome in tast- 

 ing wild fungi beginning with a single mouthful, the 

 next day two or three mouthfuls, and the next a full 

 meal. It takes a braver man than he who first swallowed 

 an oyster to make experiments like this for the benefit 

 of botanical science. Though sick stomachs and some 



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