738 
plete. so it is best to be equipped to do this work 
under cover. The material should be put in the 
beds 10 inches deep and compacted as firmly as 
possible. Insert good thermometers in different por¬ 
tions of the beds and watch them closely. The tem¬ 
perature may go over 100 deg. and should be al¬ 
lowed to decline to SO deg. before spawning. 
SPAWNING.—If American pure culture spawn is 
used cut the brick into 10 or 12 pieces and insert a 
piece about 10 inches apart each way. making a hole 
so spawn is covered nearly two inches. Press ma¬ 
nure down immediately, and follow up with a spade 
or some implement to firm the surface of the bed 
thoroughly. The cellar should be kept moist without 
applying any water to the surface of the bed, and 
when, upon examination you find small white 
threads running out into manure from the pieces of 
spawn inserted the beds are ready for casing. Good 
old sod is best for this purpose, and should be well 
broken up and screened, but not too fine. The ap¬ 
plication should be 1% to two inches deep and well 
lirmed down soon as applied. The soil should be 
as moist as is possible to handle easily, so that 
water need not be applied before mushrooms ap¬ 
pear. The time of casing is usually two weeks after 
spawning. 
CARE OF BED.—If beds become dry during bear¬ 
ing water must be applied, care being exercised to 
make only heavy enough to wet casing Without go¬ 
ing into manure underneath. When mushrooms are 
pulled the skins should be removed and all holes in 
surface of bed filled up with soil before water is 
applied. It is a good practice to have water about 
90 deg. when applying to beds. That is an outline 
of what is required to have a fair degree of suc¬ 
cess with this crop, and our experience has been 
that you may have a good crop one season, and as 
near as possible the following season we duplicated 
or endeavored to duplicate conditions and treat¬ 
ment and met with a flat failure, that being one of 
the causes of our going out of the business. An¬ 
other was the very unpleasant nature of the work, 
as all our men objected very strongly to it. I stated 
above that we tried it in our house cellar. For a 
week or more the house smelled like a stable, and 
certainly was an unpleasant place to live in. though 
after the beds were cased over there was no odor 
from them. By balancing work, and expense, and 
uncertainty, with a possible return of one cent or 
less to 25 cents per foot, you can easily see it is 
not a get-rich-quick scheme, but a hard work and 
uncertain proposition that any amateur should hesi¬ 
tate to go into extensively without some practical 
experience. e. j. weaver. 
Lancaster Co., Pa. 
POISON IVY. 
These are the days when the city vacationist hies 
himself to the shady hillside or to the vine-embow¬ 
ered stream for his annual outing, and happy is he 
if he escapes the thousand and one dangers that 
beset the path of the unwary visitor innocent of 
country ways and places, so that he may return safe 
and whole to 1 is routine duties. 
But it is not my purpose to speak of angry bulls 
and hornets' ne: s, nor of quagmires and quicksands, 
but merely to bring to notice some of the various 
forms of that most dreaded of all common plants. 
Rhus toxicodendron of the botanist, otherwise 
known as “poison ivy.” For several years I had 
wandered freely through the fields and woods of 
New York. Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska and Illi¬ 
nois without ever seeing any great amount of poison 
ivy—scarcely enough to become familiar with it— 
but not until I came to live in Southern Rhode 
Island did I ever see it in all its luxuriance, or come 
to realize how multifold are the places and manner 
of its growth. More and more the wonder to me is 
that so many people luckily escape, for in this sec¬ 
tion of New England it abounds everywhere. The 
automobilist passing along country roads may reach 
out his hand and grasp it; the callow youth may 
take his best girl and a pic: ic lunch, and seeking a 
fine shady nook, unsusiiecti'jgly plant himself in 
the midst of it: a group of romping children looking 
for wild flowers may plunge Into it, and even the 
initiated when out berrying, (ramping, hunting or 
fishing may unwittingly come in contact with it. 
On the other hand, it requires n > technical scientific 
knowledge nor any great amount of skill to learn 
to identify it and to become familiar with its more 
usual habits of growth. 
Everyone who lnts seen very mr h poison ivy, or 
even read about it, would prob; ' ly recognize it 
readily in one of its most char;.( to. tic forms on a 
fence or stone heap, or even a brush pile. In the 
case of the stone wall, the ivy roots find soil and 
moisture and protection underneath the wall, while 
THE RURAL TM EC W-YORKER 
the growth above ground is comparatively free from 
the injurious plow or mowing machine, and rises 
luxuriantly into air and sunlight upon this substan¬ 
tial structure. In fact, so securely does the plant es¬ 
tablish itself underneath and between the stones 
that it is exceedingly difficult even with the hottest 
fire completely to get rid of it. 
Another favorite mode of growth is shown in 
Fig. 299, where as a climbing vine it secures both 
protection and an abundance of mi alight by climb¬ 
ing the trunk of a tree. Where the trunk is devoid 
of branches the ivy is readily discovered, but it 
often happens that the trunk is covered with its 
own branches, in which case the ivy becomes so in¬ 
termingled with these that only a close observer is 
IIOW POISON IVY CLIMBS A TREE. Fig. 299. 
likely to detect its presence. But even those quite 
familiar with the commoner modes of growth of 
poison ivy are hardly prepared to recognize the 
peculiar form of development it takes sometimes, 
as in Fig. 300. Here the entire mass of foliage of 
what at first glance appears to be an ordinary tree 
is made up of poison ivy leaves, the tree itself being 
dead and merely furnishing the physical support for 
the luxuriant growth of ivy that has taken posses¬ 
sion of it. In this instance the main stem of the 
ivy is as thick through as one's wrist, and is secure¬ 
ly fastened to the trunk by characteristic masses 
of fibrous roots. Such a growth is peculiarly dan¬ 
gerous; since it is so unusual and unexpected. The 
unexpected, however, happens frequently in the case 
of poison ivy. Within a rod of this tree-like form 
is a fine growth of huckleberries. For an hour at 
a time I have stood knee-deep in poison ivy while I 
picked quarts of the most luscious black huckleber¬ 
ries that I ever saw. In this case scarcely a leaf 
of the ivy was visible above the huckleberry bushes, 
but underneath was a veritable tangle of it. In a 
somewhat tantalizing manner, the finest blackber¬ 
ries and huckleberries are often closely intermingled 
with it. One who is somewhat discriminating, how¬ 
ever. soon learns to distinguish it from other vines, 
and the peculiar form, color, texture and arrange¬ 
ment of the leaves become so impressed upon one's 
mind that he learns to distinguish it almost in¬ 
stantly; even children learn to know it at once and 
to avoid it. as I can vouch for in the case of my 
little eight-year-old daughter, who goes about with 
AN IVY COVERED TREE. Fig. 300. 
me freely through fields and woods and seldom 
fails to recognize it as soon as anyone else does. 
The vines most commonly mistaken for it in many 
localities are. in part, the following: Virgin’s bow¬ 
er, Virginia creeper, trailing blackberry, bittersweet 
and the like, any of which may frequently be found 
growing side by side with it. and often intermingled 
with it. While the virgin’s bower has its leaves in 
groups of three, like the ivy. its white blossoms are 
larger and much more conspicuous, and its peculiar 
hairy clusters of seeds in late Summer are a sure 
means of discrimination. I knew of a farmer who, 
on one occasion, left his haying, and shouting at fre¬ 
quent intervals drove his team across lots at break¬ 
neck speed because his wife was picking what he 
had supposed was poison ivy, when as a matter of 
fact, it was only virgin’s bower, and perfectly harm¬ 
less, as was shown in the sequel. In another in¬ 
May 23, 
stance, a certain corner of the farm was scrupu¬ 
lously avoided, and children and hired men were 
carefully cautioned against touching any of the 
leaves, but the groups of five leaves rather than 
three might indicate, even to the novice, that this 
plant was Virginia creeper. The blackberry theo¬ 
retically is on the plan of five, but the trailing va¬ 
riety, which somewhat resembles the ivy. frequent¬ 
ly has only three leaflets in a cluster; but the vein- 
ing and texture of the leaf are different, and this 
vine may further be distinguished by the prickers 
and by the edible fruit. The bittersweet may be 
readily distinguished later in the season by its 
bright yellow and red berries. The ivy, on the other 
band, during Fall and Winter has rather close clus¬ 
ters of dun-colored berries. 
Many magazine and newspaper articles give re¬ 
cipes telling what to use to counteract ivy poison¬ 
ing. all good enough in their way. but a more sen¬ 
sible way is for everyone to study the plant care¬ 
fully enough throughout the entire cycle of its de¬ 
velopment through the successive seasons of the year 
so as to be able readily to recognize it in any of its 
forms. Great care should be taken especially with 
children to teach its dangers and the various char¬ 
acteristics by which it may be identified, and by way 
of supplementing this work, village and town officers 
might well take upon themselves the task of ex¬ 
terminating it within village limits or of erecting 
signboards for the benefit of unsuspecting children 
and the unwary public generally. 
Rhode Island. Herman ciiurchii.l. 
R. N.-Y.—It must be remembered that poison ivy is 
not always a climber, but sometimes grows erect. 
Patches of young plants often show a mass of erect 
stems from one to two feet high. The leaves are 
quite like those of the box elder; sometimes the 
margin is toothed, sometimes almost entire. The 
color is bright, rather light green, surface smooth. 
The fringe of aerial rootlets along the stem, which 
enable it to cling to its support, are very char- 
a eteristic. 
EXPERIENCE WITH AN EXPRESS COMPANY 
It must be a source of great satisfaction to you 
fo look back upon the work you accomplished in 
behalf of the parcel post. After the experience I 
have had with express companies I feel like sending 
you a periodical letter of thanks for all that you 
have done. The expression used by a member of 
Congress at Washington recently that express com¬ 
panies are “parasites” appealed to me strongly. I 
have recently had my attention called to the follow¬ 
ing experience with one of them: To insure the ar¬ 
rival of personal effects at or before her arrival a 
woman sent her trunk before her departure to this 
town through an express company. It never arrived, 
but was shipped by error to New York although the 
address was plainly given and the receipt in her 
possession correctly states the destination. After 
much telegraphing and telephoning on the part of 
the owner the trunk was eventually returned to its 
starting point, but for this the express company 
collected a further charge in addition to the pre¬ 
payment on the original shipment. The owner was 
put to great inconvenience, to expense for telegrams 
and telephone messages, and for necessary renova¬ 
tion of dresses injured by remaining packed for a 
long period. This occurred last midsummer. De¬ 
mand has been made for the damage and a full ex¬ 
planation was sent. After some weeks the company 
claimed the letter of details could not be found; 
another was sent. Since then many letters have 
been sent on behalf of the claimant, but the matter 
is not adjusted. The company finally wrote the 
matter was in charge of its Boston office; then in 
charge of its New York office, and the last message 
stated that its Philadelphia office would attend to it. 
I was told by an ex-agent of an express company 
that it was the deliberate policy of his employer to 
delay adjustments until the claimant was worn out. 
It is this sort of attitude that has disgusted the 
public with corporations, and is resulting in legis¬ 
lation that is doubtless in many cases too drastic. 
I hope the day will come when every express com¬ 
pany will be compelled to treat the public from 
which it obtains its substance in the same 
courteous and fair-minded way that is customary 
in the majority of modern business transactions. 
The parcel post appears to be our only hope in the 
transportation of small parcels. Everyone should 
write to his Congressman and Senator to uphold the 
extension of the parcel post. We are deeply in¬ 
debted to The R. N.-Y. for its magnificent service in 
this matter. sanborn g. tenney. 
Massachusetts. 
When you come to this dog question it would be in¬ 
teresting to see what the women folks have to say 
about it. 
