124 MCSHEOOMS, HOW TO QEOW THEM. 



throngh the atmosphere, and tobacco smoke, have been 

 ineffectual. Burning a lamp set in a basin of water with 

 a little kerosene floating on the surface is a most doubtful 

 operation. Multitudes of flies are destroyed by this lamp 

 trap, but they are the poor little innocent "manure 

 flies," and the atmosphere of the house is vitiated and 

 rendered unhealthy for the crop. I have tried these 

 lamp traps season after season, and never knew of their 

 doing any good ; that is, the maggots seemed just as 

 numerous in the lamp-trapped cellar as in the other cel- 

 lar in which no lamp trap had been used. 



Eegarding this " maggots " question, Mr. J. F. Barter, 

 of London, writes me: "During the summer months 

 the outdoor mushrooms get maggoty before they are big 

 enough to gather, but of course they can be grown in 

 cool cellars all the year round. ... I know of no 

 sure cure for them (the maggots) ; of course a slighb 

 sprinkling of salt with manure or mold does prevent, to 

 a certain extent, "but it must be used very carefully." 

 Now my experience is, as I have already said, that it is 

 impossible to grow mushrooms here in summer, even in 

 cool cellars, without having them more or less maggoty. 

 As regards the salt and loam preventive, I have tried it 

 lightly and heavily, but without any apparent good 

 effect. 



Black Spot — All mushroom growers are familiar 

 with this disease, but unless it appears in pronounced 

 form very little notice is taken of it, even by market 

 men, for we see spotted mushrooms continually exposed 

 for sale. It appears as dark brown spots, streaks, or 

 freckles, on the top of the mushroom caps, and increases 

 in distinctness and breadth with age. Fig. 25. It is 

 caused by eel worms {AnguillulcB). These minute 

 creatures enter the mushrooms when the latter are in 

 their tiniest pin form and before they emerge from the 

 ground. If a button arises clean it remains clean, if 



