FOREST AND STREAM. 



121 



The Centennial Class.— On the brink of the new college 

 year, it may be worth while to review the facts that were 

 male public in the reports of commencement time, in re- 

 gard to what every graduate of the present Centennial 

 isummer has been pleased to term "the great and glorious 

 -class of 76." At Harvard it numbered 135; at Yale; 174 

 {including 54 graduates of the scientific course); at Brown, 

 47, or six more than any previous class; at Dartmouth, 

 80, including 11 scientifics; at Williams, 37; at Bowdoin, 

 43; at Amherst, 68; at Trinity, 13; at Wesley an, 33, in- 

 cluding four women; at Holy Cross, 19; at Tutts, 11; 

 at Bates, 24; at Massachusetts Agricultural, 24; and at 

 Vermont, Middlebury, Colby, Norwich, Maine Agricul- 

 tural, Boston College and Boston University, the class 

 probably averaged about a dozen. All New England, 

 therefore, sent out a class of about 800 from its twenty 

 colleges, the two oldest of them graduating more than 300 

 of the number. Columbia, the oldest of the New York 

 colleges, had a class of 66, including 18 in engineering, and 

 13 in science; Union had 40, including 13 in engineering 

 and 10 in science; Hamillon, 18; Madison, 11; Hohart, 8; 

 New York University, 24, including 8 in engineering 

 and 10 in science; New York College, 44, including 19 

 in science; Rochester, 39, including 5 in science; Syra- 

 cuse, 10; Manhattan, 13; St. John's, of Fordham, 21; a 

 total of 294 New York graduates, exclusive of those sent 

 forth by Cornell, Altred and St. Lawrence universities, and 

 St. Francis Xavier and St. Stephen's colleges, whose record 

 would probably swell the number beyond 400. Of the 158 

 graduates of New Jersey, Princeton supplied 118, Rutgers, 

 29, and Seton Hall, 11. Lafayette College, in Pennsylva- 

 nia, sent out 70 men, a larger number than ever before; 

 ^Michigan University's class of '76 numbered 76, including 

 a dozen women; and Wisconsin University graduated 42. 

 The average age of the graduates at Yale was 22 years 1 

 month; at Amherst, 22 years 5 months; at Lafayette, 22 

 years 10 months; at Williams, 22 years 11 months; at Dart- 

 mouth, 23 years 2 months, and at Michigan, 23 years 8 

 months. For the last ten years, the graduating age at the 

 latter institution has varied but a few months from that of 

 the present class, but at Dartmouth, the presence of a man 

 who had reached his semi-centennial birthday — "the oldest 

 undergraduate on record" — doubtless added appreciably to 

 the general average. Candidates for the "three learned pro- 

 fessions" of law, theology and medicine, respectively, were 

 recorded as fallows: Yale, 45 (including 5 from the scien- 

 tific course), 15 and 21; Dartmouth, 32, and 3; Williams, 

 11, 8 and 3; Lafayette, 16, 14 and 4; Michigan, 22, 2 and 

 5. Journalism had four candidates from Yale and two 

 from Dartmouth. As to politics at Yale, 55 favored the 

 Republicans, and 29 the Opposition; at Williams, the 

 figures were 30 to 8, and at Amherst, 35 to 25; while, as 

 between free trade and protection, the preferences were 95 

 to 21, and at Williams, 26 to 5. The annual expenditure 

 of the '76 man at Yale was said to be $1,075, and at Dart- 

 mouth, $487 — the extremes being in the one case $9,300 and 

 $1,280, and in the other, $4,0>j0 and $1,200, for the four 

 yeai's course; but it should be remembered that no great 

 trust can be placed in the accuracy of undergraduates' 

 statistics concerning personal expenditures. At Yale there 

 were 78 church members, out of a class of 120, and at 

 Amherst 54, out of a class of 68, the denominations being 

 represented in the two colleges as follows:- Congregation- 

 aliats, 36 and 32; Episcopalians, 19 and 3; Presbvterians, 

 12 and 10; Baptists, 2 aud 2; Methodists, 2 and 1. The 

 Jews, Catholics, Quakers, Universalists and other sects, 

 also had several representatives at Yale. Forty-three of 

 the Yalensians were sous of college graduates, of whom 

 17 were graduates of Yale; 26 were sons of professional 

 men, of whom 18 were lawyers; 35 were sons of mer- 

 chants; 15 were sons of manufacturers, and 10 were sons 

 of farmers. Senators Blaine and Dawes, once rival can- 

 didates for the Speakership of the House of Represen- 

 tatives, each had a son in the Ytle class of '76. 



The Hunter's Camp in Harper's Weekly,— We have 

 received from Theo. R. Davis, whose wide reputation as 

 an artist is daily growing wider, a proof of a beautiful 

 drawing and engraving to occupy a full page of the forth- 

 coming number of Harper's Weekly, illustrating the "Hunt- 

 er's Camp" at the Centennial Exhibition Grounds. It is 

 the b^st of the sketches yet made of this picturesque spot, 

 which one could scarcely imagine was located at the pivot- 

 point of the whole world's busy industries. Here we find 

 the purling brook expanding into the quiet lake beyond 

 where the canoes float; the brake of ferns and rank weeds 

 on its margin; the lazy smoke drifting upward from the 

 slow-burning fire; the rude log, with its backwoods "out- 

 fit," and the lounging hunters themselves, not to omit the 

 bear, and behind and over all the dense woods, into whose 

 dark recesses the imagination sends its inquiring thoughts, 

 where one's footsteps would fain be lead. The talented 

 artist must accept our gratitude for his faithful representa- 

 tion, while the compliment bestowed upon us by the pub- 

 lishers will be recognized by others as well as ourselves. 

 ***.». 



—A very important duty of the poultry breeder is to see 

 that his chickens are free from vermin. Sprinkle sulphur 

 continually over the chickens, roosts and houses, the latter 

 two occasionally washed with kerosene. 



■ •*.»*. 



—We acknowledge the kind invitation of Mr. Orville 

 Wilcox, of Good Ground, L. I., to visit him in the duck 

 shooting season, and hope it will be possible for us to do so. 

 ■ -**«• 



—The island of Penikese, with the buildings on it, has 

 reverted to Mr. John Anderson, who presented it to the 

 late Prof. Agassiz for a summer sebool of natural history, 



THE MUSHROOM AND ITS CULTIVA- 

 TION. 



THE poets have a disparaging way of speaking of 

 fungi generally. Holmes sings in the following 

 strain :— 



"There's a thing that grows by the fainting flower, 

 And springs in the shade of the lady's bower; 

 TUe lily shrinks and tbe rose turns pale, 

 When they feel its breath in the summer gale; 

 And the tulip curls its leaves in pride* 

 And the olue-eyed violet starts aside; 

 But the lily may flaunt and the tulip stare, 

 J'or what does the honest toadstool care." 



Honesty in neither men nor fungus could compensate 

 for so vilhanously bad a breath that companions and asso- 

 ciates are indiscriminately repelled, Such is one corollary 

 from Holmes's verse. Shelly appears unable to regard the 

 mushroom or any of its genus as other than the child of 

 decay and corruption. 



' 'And agarics and fungi with mildew and mould 

 Started like mist from the wet ground cold, 

 Pale, fleshy, as if the decaying dead 

 With the spirit of growtn had been animated " 



The mushroom does not, however, lack its laudatory 

 poet, although he writes in the language of prose. Bad 

 ham says of fungi that they "are beautiful as the fairest 

 flowers, and more useful than most fruits." He recom- 

 mends mushroom hunting to the young naturalist, not 

 only for the beauty of the objects he is sure to come upon, 

 but because it brings the wanderer out of beaten tracks 

 into many lovely views. He presents himself to us as a 

 man with the^oul of an artist and a poet writing upon 

 mushrooms, before closing his volume he treats us- to the 

 following rhapsody: "It is a pleasant remembrance to 

 have plucked the crimson amanite that ministered to a 

 Caesar's decease in the very neighborhood of the Palatine 

 Hill j to have collected mushrooms amidst the meadows of 

 Horace's farm, whe>e, he tells us, they grew best, and to 

 have watched along the moist pastures of the cremara, a 

 stand of the stately Ayaricus procerus nodding upon their 

 stalks, or standing on the heights above Soviento just as the 

 setting sun flashed upon the waters of the bay ere they en- 

 gulphed him, and left us to his sister and the evening star; 

 to have come upon that wonderful Poiyporus tuber-aster, 

 whose matrix is the hard stone from which it derives 

 strength and luxuriance, as if from a soft and genial soil." 

 Such is the poetry of science, and enough has been said to 

 show that in speaking of the lowly mushroom we are 

 touching upon a theme which is not only fraught with in- 

 terest, but may be productive of enthusiasm. 



The mushroom or agaric is a genus of fungi, of which 

 there are many species, differing widely in their qualities 

 and appearance. Some are dangerously poisonous, but 

 the greater number are edible and highly nutritive. The 

 name itself is French— mouceron— and belongs particularly 

 to an excellent species, the Ayaricus priundus. By a cu- 

 rious transformation of names this species, though highly 

 valued on the continent of Europe, is deemed noxious in 

 England, where it is robbed of its name for the designa- 

 tion of an entire genus, and is itself referred to the cate- 

 gory of toadstools. The fact may also be taken as indica- 

 tive of the general ignorance prevailing in regard to the 

 mushroom. Another may here be adduced. In England 

 the Ayaricus campesubs, or common mushroom is the one 

 most generally esteemed. Many collectors class all others 

 together as poisonous. It is also, with the exception of the 

 truffle and morel, almost the only one allowed to be sold 

 in Paris. At Rome the same mushroom is one of the few 

 excluded from the market, by reason of its similarity 

 to some of the poisonous members of the family, especial- 

 ly to the white variety of Ayaricus pliilloides. In this coun- 

 try little attention is paid to the subject, and comparatively 

 little is in consequence generally known regaiding it. It 

 is possible that a prejudice exists against the genus from 

 the noxious qualities of some of the species, and that on 

 account of the latter the whole are included in a sweeping 

 condemnation. To meet this it may be slated that the es 

 culent varieties preponderate to a great extent over the 

 noxious. It would be a very easy matter for anyone living 

 in a uistrict where mushrooms abound to make himself ac- 

 quainted with two or three of the more plentiful edible 

 species. If in such a case all others, even including a few 

 of the less plentiful but esculent varieties, should be dis- 

 carded as dangerous, the waste would be less reprehen- 

 sible than that occasioned by placing all under a common 

 ban. There are several reasons why the cultivation of the 

 mushroom should be encouraged. It is, in the first place, 

 a very valuable member of the vegetable kingdom, by its 

 possession of qualities which are nowhere else found in 

 similar combination. In the second place it is econom- 

 ical in a double sense. In the thiid place it may be made 

 highly remunerative. 



With reference to the first of these the mushroom makes 

 a nearer approach than any other vegetable to rendering 

 the nutritive components of flesh meat; taste and smell 

 alike point to a high azotization. Dr. Marcet leads us to 

 the same conclusion by the aid of chemistry. Instead of 

 giving out oxygen and absorbing carbonic acid, like other 

 vegetables, the mushroom, like animals, absorbs oxygen 

 and exhales carbonic acid, hydrogen, or azotic gas, accord- 

 ing to the species under examination. When chemically 

 analyzed they yield sugar, gum, resin, fungi, acid, a vari- 

 ety of salts, albumen, adipocire and azmazome. The acid 

 is peculiar to themselves, but all the others are components 

 of animal structures. "The common basis or solid struc- 

 ture of the plant itself after the extraction of all the above 

 substances^ js a white, flabby substance, insipid in taste, 



but highly nutritious. Nitric acid poured upon it disen- 

 gages azotic gas, and several new substances- result— a bit- 

 ter principle, a reddish, reninoid matter, hydrocyanic and 

 oxalic acids, and two remarkable fatty substances, whereof 

 one resembles tallow the other wax." If such results of 

 scientific inquiry be taken in connection with the expres- 

 sion of M. Roques, when he calls the mushroom "the man- 

 na of the poor," it will be seen that in neglecting 

 the mushroon a rich source of human nourishment is 

 overlooked. When flesh meat is unattainable the mush- 

 room is an invaluable substitute, by possessing, as we 

 have seen, the most estimable qualities of animal food. 

 We thus dispose of one half of the economical que-tion . 

 The other touches upon the supply of esculent fungi, and 

 the extent to which they may be developed. Foreign 

 usages in this respect are more than usually interesting. 



There are said to be between 30 and 40 species of fungus 

 in England which are fit for human food. Of these the 

 only one possessing any value in popular esteem is the 

 common mushroom, or Ay. campestris. All the rest are 

 either neglected or destroyed. On the European continent, 

 and especially in Italy, France and Germany, the mush- 

 room is much more highly valued. A great part of the 

 population depends almost exclusively upon it for the 

 food of many months. Some preserve it, and thus make 

 it a supporter of existence throughout the year. At Rome 

 what will appear to many a very singular usaL r e, prevails. 

 The traffic in mushrooms in the market of that city is so 

 large that an officer is appointed to act as inspector. This 

 means is resorted to for excluding any of the poisonous va- 

 rieties. The inspector's duties are clearly defined by law, 

 and the fact is referred to in the meantime chiefly as indi- 

 cating the importance of the trade. They are in season 

 for about six weeks in the fall and three weeks in the 

 spring, and about $20,000 to, on an estimate, yearly realized 

 from the traffic. It would be interesting to calculate the 

 aunual returns throughout the whole of Italy, and much 

 more interesting to speculate upon the dimensions to which 

 such a trade might be brought in a city like New York. 

 What has been said refers to the mushroom only in the 

 fresh state. It is also useful for making ketchup, one of 

 the most delicately flavored and useful of sauces. In this 

 form also the mushroom has a considerable commercial 

 value. Berkeley, an English writer, mentions an instance 

 in which a single ketchup merchant, had, in consequence 

 of an unusually large crop of mushrooms, no less than 800 

 gallons on hand, the produce of mushrooms gathered with- 

 in a radius of thrte or four miles. These were probably 

 collected by the poor country people, as in the case of 

 those sold in the market place at Rome, and the economi- 

 cal value of the mushroom may now, in view of what has 

 been said, be fully estimated. We have seen that the in- 

 gredients entering into its composition qualify it for taking 

 the place of flesh on the table. We have also seen that the 

 poor of Europe derive from it a present subsistence and a 

 revenue for future support. We have still further seen 

 that either in its fresh or preserved state, or as ketchup, it 

 has a considerable value as an article of regular com 

 merce. 



There would, therefore, appear to be some object in gir- 

 ing more attention to the subject than it lias heretofore re- 

 ceived. We have already alluded to the delicate fla- 

 vor of the mushroom, it remains for us to meet the objec- 

 tion of indigestibility. The mushroom should always be 

 eaten with a liberal allowance of bread. It may be broad- 

 ly asserted that it was never found indiges'ible unless when 

 eaten alone, or in imprudent quantities. No general rule 

 ran be given by which the good can be distinguished from 

 the poisonous. Neither odor nor color can in every case 

 be trusted. One authority lays down as a partial rule the 

 avoidance of milky fungi, and those having an acid or 

 biting smell or flavor. The safest usage is to avoid exper- 

 iments, to depend only upon absolute knowledge, and let 

 the palate be further favored as the knowledge extends.* 

 With the limits at our disposal it would be simply impos- 

 sible to give a detailed description of the numerous spe- 

 cies. To do so would involve a treatise upon the whole 

 tribe of fungi. 



The common mushroom may be selected as the most 

 generally known. It is found in both nor h and south 

 temperate zones. Its white, button like head may often 

 be discovered peeping above the sod of the orchard or pas- 

 ture land on the morning after a summer or autumn 

 shower. It is best suited for the table while in this state, 

 before the pileus expands or the veil attaching it to the 

 stem is broken. The pileus is convex in shape, and as the 

 mushroom becomes older it gradually expands until it be- 

 comes almost flat. The skin is milky white until age tin- 

 ges it with brown or yellow. It has a soft, velvety 

 smoothness, which is occasionally broken by the partial 

 peeling or cracking of the upper laminse of skin. Under 

 this are the gills, which are pink or brown or black, ac- 

 cording to the age of the mushroom. The stem hardly re- 

 quires description. Almost every person who has been 

 fortunate enough to live in the country in the fall must 

 have seen the objects we have attempted to describe dot- 

 ting the pastures with white and gleaming heads, or 

 lying on the ground, unable to bear longer the load of 

 ketchup with which theirgills are charged. Such is the mush- 

 room growing wild. Between it as it crops up unexpect- 

 edly in the meadow, and in its cultivated state there is little 

 choice. Some assert thai it is less wholesome when culti- 



*Dr. Badham goes into ecstacies over the delicately flavored nourish- 

 ment supplied by the mushroom, and urges its general use. Bui £i;< u 

 he, as Berkeley tells us, once suffered violently from simply tasuUg 

 some of the spores of one of the milky agarics he had collected , 



