The Cook County herald., 1905-11-18
Cautions as 10 Mushrooms.

! ]. = 'y
Cautions as TO Mushrooms. !
would like to inquire of the Farm
ers' Review II it is likely or possible
Tor toadstools to grow from English
Mushroom Spawn.-L e. Davis, Mis-.
souri,. 2 =.| #. f"
Reply-While it is not probable that
poisonous mushrooms would be pro.
duced in spawn grown for commercial
uses, there is always a possibility OF
an accident of that kind, and it may
fairly be assumed that such accidents
nave occurred during the time the
race has been eating the mushroom
known as agaricus campestris. By
toadstools you doubtless mean pois-
onous mushrooms. The words mush.
room and toadstool are the same in
significance, and do not define the
edible and poisonous varieties. The
word toadstool is corruption Of the
Old English word Taedstael, which
was the word used to designate all
kinds of mushrooms.
The variety of mushroom from
which English spawn is grown is agar
icus campestris. This spawn is pro.
duced by sowing little pieces of spawn
in horse manure and pressing the
manure into cakes when the mycelium
has permeated the mass. The only
source of danger is the horse manure,
which may have the germs of the 9th
er varieties of mushrooms in it before
it is put to the use of the spawners:
Many farmers and horse owners will
remember seeing different kinds OF
mushrooms growing out of the horse
manure pile.
The greatest danger comes from
the presence of such mushrooms as
Amanita phalloides, which is fine
looking white mushroom. It is posi-
BILE that its spores would find their
way into the horse manure in the
same ways in which the spores of 9th
er mushrooms are carried from place
to place.
Every person that grows mush-
rooms should know the edible variety
so we'll that there is no danger OF
gathering the poisonous kinds even ii
they do grow. There is not one chance
i'll a million of getting the spawn OF
poisonous mushrooms in spawn scld
by seed houses, and even if man did
get the millionth chance it would be
a case Of stupidity il he did not de:
tect the undesirable mushroom as
soon as it appeared. The principal
danger would be in it's button form,
before it expanded the cap.
Amanita phalloides has white gills,
while the gills of agaricus campestris
are pink. All of the. Amanitas grow
from vulvas Cor sheaths) while the
common mushroom does not. Even
when the button form only exists, the
sheath is visible at the root and need
not be mistaken.
Growers of mushrooms, as well as
the people that gather wild mush.
rooms, should be warned not to de-
pend on the tests frequently seen in
periodicals. The people that write
them do not know what they are talk
ing about and doubtless got them from
their grandmothers. One of the so,
called tests" is to put silver spoon
with the mushrooms when they are
being cooked and if the silver is not
turned black the mushroom is good
The most deadly of all the mush.
rooms will not color silver. Another
test is the ring, but both the good
and bad mushrooms have rings. One
newspaper writer says that all mush'
rooms growing on stumps are poison
Gus; but agaricus sublateritius grows
on stumps and is edible. The only
safe way is to know each variety by
sight, learning from some one tha,
does know them; obtaining the knowl
edge by analyzing the mushrooms
botanically; or finding them. out by
descriptions in books written by .scien
tific men that can be relied upon for
accuracy.-Farmers' Review.
Grape PhyIloxera in Idaho. =: