218 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



adopted. Crops may still be sown for spring use, and as the 

 plants will be smaller than those which were sown last month, 

 they will have a better chance of standing the winter. 



ARTICHOKES. 



As the young leaves of artichokes intended for chard, and 

 which were put in a state of preparation for that purpose last 

 month, advance to the height of a foot or eighteen inches, 

 they should be tied together with strings of matting and then 

 enveloped with clean straw, and gradually moulded up, as 

 practised with cardoons, or the leaves may be carefully held 

 together by the hand, and bound round with hay-bands, and 

 the mould drawn round them. 



\. 



MUSHROOMS. 



Mushrooms have long been held in estimation in this coun- 

 try, and the cultivation of them is not of modern date. The 

 early gardeners seem to have cultivated them on ridges of warm 

 dung, and no mention is made by any of them of mushrooms 

 having been found at any time of the year of natural growth. 



The circumstance of their being so fi'equently found in 

 almost all old pastures, in greater or less abundance, cannot, 

 however, be supposed to have escaped their observation, and 

 it is probable that from such places they procured their spawn. 

 Indeed, one old wTiter on the cultivation of mushrooms directs, 

 " when the beds are made, and of suitable warmth, look out 

 for mushrooms, which will be beginning to appear by this 

 time {September) ; when they are of the size of small peas, 

 take up the whole mass and remove it to the bed prepared for 

 them, taking care not to break the pieces, but as little as pos- 

 sible. Plant these pieces among the dung, which cover with 

 a little mould, and in a few days they will be fit for use." 

 The same end would most probably have been attained, had 

 they remained in their original situation. 



How far mushrooms may be considered wholesome, as an 

 article of food, may be questioned. Few of the numerous 

 family of Agaricus are eaten in this country. In other coun- 



