women count most magnificently, I should look for a condition which 
would soon utterly change the rather disgraceful relationship of a few 
years ago, when out of some 588 varieties listed in the catalogue of the 
National Rose Society of England — the standard catalogue of the 
world at that time — but 26 were of American origin! 
Mushroom Culture 
By Dorothy Abbot, Garden Club of Washington, Connecticut 
While there are at least 150 known varieties of the edible Fungi iii 
the United States, the Agaricus Campestris or Field Mushroom is 
the only kind that " will accommodate itself easily to an artificial imi- 
tation of its native surroundings, " to quote from Mr. William Hamer- 
ton Gibson's well-put sentence. This variety is too well known to need 
any description, and I'm sure that most of us feel so well acquainted 
that we dare cook and eat them when we gather them from the fields. 
They are delicate pink and white when fresh, and tan and brown when 
slightly passe. 
The Agaricus Campestris has been cultivated in precisely the same 
manner from the middle of the Eighteenth Century (and probably 
before), with the exception of spawn, which we can procure in 
simple brick form, but which the people in old times had to get 
from its natural surroundings. Almost the clearest exposition of 
mushroom culture I found was in a book written about 1779 rejoic- 
ing in the title: "The Garden Mushroom. Its Nature and Cultiva-, 
tion ; a Treatise exhibiting Full and Plain Directions for Producing 
This Desirable Plant in Perfection and Plenty" ! 
All authorities, old and new, however, agree in certain essentials, 
and I shall try to give the main points of: 
1. Where to grow them. 
2. How to grow them. 
3. General requisites and conditions. 
I. Where to grow them. — Dreer claims there is no reason why we 
can't have lawns just sprouting with mushrooms, but I have tried it, 
and I regret to say with no success. I was pleased to learn from other 
authorities that it is almost impossible to grow them successfully out 
of doors, even though they may grow in abundance in a field one side 
of you and on a neighbor's lawn on the other. So, if out-door culture is 
tried, it is as well to keep on friendly terms with the neighbor who is 
lucky enough to have God-given ones, in case your own crop fails. 
It is better to try them under truly artificial conditions, such as in 
sheds, cellars, greenhouses, barns, old stalls, or if possible a little: 
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