118 
MUSHROOMS, HOW TO GROW THEM. 
retained to the caps all are weighed together; if part of 
the stems had been cut off the weight would have been 
reduced, and, in like proportion, the price; but if the 
stems are retained entire not only are the mushrooms 
benefited, but the weight, and with it the price, is also 
increased. 
Gathering Field or Wild Mushrooms.—Go in 
search of them in the morning before the sunshine gets 
warm and they become too open or old. If you wish to 
gather and preserve them in their most perfect condition 
pull them up by the 4 4 roots, ” carefully remove any soil 
from them, and then lay them orderly in the basket, the 
root end down; and by spreading a stout sheet of paper 
over the layer, another may be arranged above it in the 
same way, and so on until the basket is full. But if you 
are not so particular and wish them for immediate use, 
or for ketchup or drying, the common way of cutting 
them off and carrying them home in bulk will answer 
well enough. 
Marketing Mushrooms.—Most market growers who 
live immediately around New York City sell direct, and 
deliver their mushrooms to hotels, restaurants, and 
fancy fruiterers. But some of them, also most of those 
who live at a considerable distance from the city, sell 
their mushrooms through commission merchants in New 
York; they, in turn, sell in quantities to suit customers. 
Mushrooms are sold by the pound, and come into 
market in boxes made of strong undressed paper. Some 
growers have light wooden boxes made that hold from 
one to four pounds of mushrooms each, and these make 
convenient and strong packages for shipping by express. 
They may be sent singly, or, as is the case with the 
paper boxes, several packed together in crates or boxes. 
In sending directly to hotels, cheap baskets, holding one 
or several pounds—Mr. Gardner's baskets hold twelve 
pounds—are often used, but in sending to commission 
