THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 



THE STUDY OF MUSHROOMS. 



Read before the Hamilton Association, J\Tay 4th, iSgg. 

 BY W. A. CHILD, PH.B., M. A. 



In presenting a paper on Mushrooms to this Association, I do 

 not do so with any thought of bringing forward new scientific 

 knowledge, or of presenting any facts that cannot be found in many 

 books on the subject; I only wish to call your attention to a branch 

 of Biology that has been much neglected. If I can excite a little 

 interest in the subject, and induce a few observers to direct their 

 attention to it, I will have attained my end. I wish also to call 

 your attention to the practical value of the study. 



How many tons or hundred of tons of the finest food go to 

 waste every year simply for ignorance of its value ? No spot is too 

 worthless to produce its harvest of fungi — on rubbish heaps, manure 

 piles, roads, lawns, meadows, pastures, waste fields, woods and 

 swamps — everywhere nature produces these her greatest delicacies, 

 which man in his ignorance despises. Some of the finest mush- 

 rooms grow in coal bins and along the sides of railroad tracks. The 

 brakemen and section men take great delight in kicking them. I 

 think no railroad man ever passes a clump of Coprini without 

 bestowing a kick upon it, and the pleasure thus afforded (I believe 

 it is a great and genuine pleasure) seems to be the only good this 

 really delicious mushroom does. 



I know of a village near Toronto where, a few years ago, the 

 people were in the greatest distress on account of the financial 

 depression and the collapse of a recent land boom. Many of these 

 people were living from day to day mostly on hope, and often were 

 in great want. All around them were growing in great abun- 

 dance tons of the finest food equal to the best of meat. There 

 were many kinds of mushroom, and some of the gigantic puff balls 

 as big as a man's head. At current prices in Toronto many families 

 could have made a good living by collecting and selling these, but 

 this would have presupposed a knowledge of their value on the part 



