IKSKCT AND OTHER ENEMIES. 125 



diseased it continues to be diseased, and it is a fact that 

 if one mushroom in a clump has black spot we usually 

 find that every mushroom in the clump has it. But 

 mushrooms growing from the same bit of spawn and that 

 come up an inch or two away from the spotted ones may 

 be perfectly clean. Black spot has never occurred witli 

 me in new beds, and seldom in those in vigorous bearing, 

 but it generally appears in beds that have been in bearing 

 condition for some weeks or are declining. It docs not 

 confine itself to any particular 

 spot or part of the bed, and some- 

 times it is much more plentiful 

 than at others. Between Octo- 

 ber and March we have very little 

 black spot, but as the spring opens 

 Fig. 25. MusHBooMAF- *^is disease increases. During 

 FECTED WITH BLACK SPOT. tliB wiutcr scasou, with careful 

 attention, perhaps not so much as one per cent will 

 show black spot, but-as the warm weather sets in the per 

 centage increases until in May, when as many as twenty 

 per cent may be affected by it. 



Black spot is a disease, however, that can be con- 

 trolled. Keep everything in and about the mushroom 

 houses rigidly clean, and as soon as a bed has ceased to 

 bear a crop worth picking clear it out, lime-wash the 

 place it occupied, and make up another bed. Carefully 

 observe that no old loam or manure is allowed to accu- 

 mulate anywhere, or green scum forms upon the boards, 

 paths, or walls; boiling water impregnated with alum 

 poured over the beards, walls, and other scum-covered 

 surfaces, will kill the eel worms, but it should not be 

 allowed to touch the mushroom beds that are in bearing 

 or coming into bearing. Much cab be done to protect 

 the bearing beds from the ravages of this pest : In 

 gathering the mushrooms remove every vestige of old 

 stump and fogged-ofE mushrooms, keep the holes filled 



