INSECT AND OTHER ENEMIES. 
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cellars, where the temperature in April does not exceed 
55°, maggots always appear about the end of this month. 
But it is true that in the case of cool houses and where 
the beds are covered over with hay or straw maggots do 
not appear as early in the season as they do in warm 
houses and open beds. While rigid cleanliness, and care 
in keeping the house or cellar closed, no doubt have much 
to do in lessening the trouble, I have never been able to 
overcome it, and know of no one who has. We simply 
stop growing mushrooms in summer. 
The maggots or larvae are about three-sixteenths to 
four-sixteenths of an inch long, white with black head, 
and appear in all parts of the mushroom, but mostly in 
the cap and at the base of the stem, and perforate hither 
and thither leaving behind them a disgusting network 
of burrows. The tiny buttons, about as soon as they 
appear at the surface of the ground, are infested, but 
this does not check their growth, and when they become 
mushrooms large enough for gathering, unless it be for 
a dark looking puncture or tracing now and then visible 
on the outside of the caps and stems, there are but few 
signs to indicate to the inexperienced eye the presence 
of maggots. And this is why maggoty mushrooms are 
so often found exposed for sale in summer. But in 
large or full-grown mushrooms, and especially the white¬ 
skinned varieties, their presence is visible enough. 
Although very repugnant, however, and utterly unfit 
for food, maggoty mushrooms are not poisonous. 
But all the mushrooms of summer crops are not mag¬ 
goty, only a large proportion of them; the evil begins 
in April, and increases as the summer advances, until 
August, when it decreases, and in October completely 
stops—at least this is my experience. 
A solution of salt, saltpeter, or ammonia sprinkled 
over the surface of the beds does not, in this case, do 
any good as an insecticide, pyrethrum powder diffused 
