IKSECT AND OTHER ENEMIES. 123 



cellars, where the temperature in April does not exceed 

 55°, maggots always appear about the end of this month. 

 But it is true that in the case of cool houses and where 

 the beds are coyered over with hay or straw maggots do 

 not appear as early in the season as they do in warm 

 houses and open beds. While rigid cleanliness, and care 

 in keeping the house or cellar closed, no doubt have much 

 to do in lessening the troiible, I have never been able to 

 overcome it, and know of no one who has. We simply 

 stop growing mushrooms in summer. 



The maggots or larvae are about three-sixteenths to 

 four-sixteenths of an inch long, white with black head, 

 and appear in all parts of the mushroom, but mostly in 

 the cap and at the base of the stem, and perforate hither 

 and thitiier leaving behind them a disgusting network 

 of burrows. The tiny buttons, about as soon as they 

 appear at the surface of the ground, are infested, but 

 tliis does not check their growth, and when they become 

 mushrooms large enough for gathering, unless it be for 

 a dark looking puncture or tracing now and then visible 

 on the outside of the caps and stems, there are but few 

 signs to indicate to the inexperienced eye the presence 

 of maggots. And this is why maggoty mushrooms are 

 so often found exposed for sale in summer. But in 

 large or full-grown mushrooms, and especially the white- 

 skinned varieties, their presence is visible enough. 

 Although very repugnant, however, and utterly unfit 

 for food, maggoty muslirooms are not poisonous. 



But all the mushrooms of summer crops are not mag- 

 goty, only a large proportion of them ; the evil begins 

 in April, and increases as the summer advances, until 

 August, when it decreases, and in October completely 

 stops — at least this is my experience. 



A solution of salt, saltpeter, or ammonia sprinkled 

 over the surface of the beds does not, in this case, do 

 any good as an insecticide, pyrethrum powder diffused 



