118 MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 



retained to the caps all are weighed together ; if part of 

 the stems had been cut off the weight would have been 

 reduced, and, in like proportion, the price; but if the 

 stems are retained entire not only are the mushrooms 

 benefited, but the weight, and with it the price, is also 

 increased. 



Gathering Field or Wild Mushrooms. — Go iu 

 search of them in the morning before the sunshine gets 

 warm and they become too open or old. If you wish to 

 gather and preserve them in their most perfect condition 

 pull them up by the "roots," carefully remove any soil 

 from them, and then lay them orderly in the basket, the 

 root end down ; and by spreading a stout sheet of paper 

 over the layer, another may be arranged above it in the 

 same way, and so on until the basket is full. But if you 

 are not so particular and wish them for immediate use, 

 or for ketchup or drying, the common way of cutting 

 them off and carrying them home in bulk will answer 

 well enough. 



Marketing Mushrooms Most market growers who 



live immediately around New York City sell direct, and 

 deliver their mushrooms to hotels, restaurants, and 

 fancy fruiterers. But some of them, also most of those 

 who live at a considerable distance from the city, sell 

 their mushrooms through commission merchants in New 

 York; they, in turn, sell in quantities to suit customers. 



Mushrooms are sold by the pound, and come into 

 market in boxes made of strong undressed paper. Some 

 growers have light wooden boxes made that hold from 

 one to four pounds of mushrooms each, and these make 

 convenient and strong packages for shipping by express. 

 They may be sent singlj', or, as is the case with the 

 paper boxes, several packed together in crates or boxes. 

 In sending directly to hotels, cheap baskets, holding one 

 or several pounds — Mr. Gardner's baskets hold twelve 

 pounds — are often used, but in sending to commission 



