23 
room, it can be grown in summer, for it springs up so fast that the larvm of 
the little flies have hardly time to develop before the mushrooms are 
ready for use. It is, however, no more maggot-proof than the old one. 
Its disadvantages are its toadstool appearance, its uncertain behavior, 
and the fact that the crop comes in spurts, lots to-day and none 
to-morrow. But further acquaintance may overcome the dislike to its 
looks and practical experience control its behavior. Bulk for bulk it 
is not as heavy as the common mushroom. Though its cap is deeper 
and broader, it is thinner and therefore lighter. It does not burst its 
veil as soon as the old kind, but after it does it gets old very quickly. 
It is very good to eat, having a pronounced mushroom flavor and 
exuding a fair quantity of juice. The flesh is also tender. Several per¬ 
sons whom Mr. Falconer knows prefer it to the common mushroom, 
though he was still inclined to favor his old and toothsome friend A. 
campestris. 
This new mushroom requires more heat and more water than the old. 
In one case, where a bed of mushrooms about one-fourth grown stood 
still for three or four days, after a good soaking they swelled up finely 
and gave an immense crop. Watering is generally injurious to young 
mushrooms of the old species. The new species grows as well in winter 
as in summer, provided the cultural conditions are as favorable. It 
will grow in a cellar of Egyptian darkness as well as in the daylight; 
in fact, darkness whitens it and robs it of much of its outdoor coarse¬ 
ness. One cultivator thought it not quite as good for shipping as A. 
campestris , but for home trade and gathered when fresh his customers 
pronounced it superior to that species. Mr. Falconer said that, not¬ 
withstanding the uncertainty of mushroom-growing, one man on Long 
Island had been at it uninterruptedly for thirty years, and had made 
more money in it than any other man in the same trade in America. 
C 
