Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-11-15
Little or no Progress Made
in the Propagation and
Cultivation of
Mushrooms.

tific men for many centuries past
is how to cultivate mushrooms
with as much ease and success as
potatoes, carrots, turnips, and
parsnips. The solution of this
problem has so far proved extreme
ly elusive, but within the last ten
years researches in this direction
have taken a fresh turn which, in
all probability, will hasten the adj
vent of some means whereby it will
become possible to increase and vary
the production of vegetable which,
though of delicate flavor and nutri-
tive excellence, is at present lux
ury for the public at large. So far
the Agaricus campestris is the
only member of the mushroom fam
lily which has lent itself to expert
mental cultivation, all other edible
varieties, including the truffle,
rcmainicg obdurate to all scinetific
attempts at cultivation; undoubtcd-
ly their production has been TO-
mented in certain districts, but
AifAc 10 QuC liClCiJ " NOA OiAiP'A ~
methods. The mushroom sold in
our markets has also not much
progress to boast of, as it is still
grown precisely in the same way
as it was over a hundred years
ago and more; the only difference
is that it is now grown in larger
quantities, while means have also
been discovered of protecting it
from certain diseases to which ii is
liable.
Every plant in the vegetable
king dom, as a rule, springs from
and produces seed Mushrooms,
toadstools, and other fungi are no
exception, but their reproductive
bodies are termed spores. Though
these latter are truly analogous to
seed, still they differ from it in
structure.
Spores, for general purposes, may
be regarded as reproductive bodies
without an embryo, this latter be-
ing the minute parliamentary plant
Invariably found within true seeds.
The spores of some fungi are SO
inconceivably minute that it would
require more than two hundred
million placed side by side to
cover one square inch; yet these
atoms keep constant to particular
patterns, both in shape, size, and
.ooIor Each of these atoms is en-
dowed with a sparklet of life,
which under favorable circum-
stances, will cause the minute
spore to swell, burst and repro
dncc the parent plant from which
1t sprang. The spores of different
species of the mushroom family
vary greatly in size, shape, color
and quality. Some are one humid
red times larger than others, and
they take all sorts of geometrical
and ornamental forms; many are
white, some blue, green, red, yell
low, or black; and, while some
are perfectly harmless others are
violently poisonous in their effects.
The purple brown or violet sporec
edible mushroom so common in oul
fields consists, as our readers are
aware. of an umbrella-shaped TOT
carried by cylindrical and vcrtica
stem. On the lower surface of the
cap as the top is technical,
termed, there are thin blades o
strip like lengths OF violet color
Ill 80 -
of union with the stem. On cutting
through one of these blades o
]'gills'' and examining it with
microscope it will be seen tina
small oval bodies of dark purpl
color spring therefrom and are at
tached two by two to thin fila
1nents or threads. Each of thes
small oval bodies is spore, an
If is they in their entirety whic
irnpart the violet hue to the lowe
part of the cap. II a sheet {
Vbitc paper be placed beneath til
cap of a ripe mushroom, it will
after a short space of time,
tintcd violet by the impalpab
powder falling upon it. Fac
single one of these microscope
spores, provided it meet with tt
requisite favorable conditions, wi
thrive and produce network
fi1aments from which new We,
etable growth will originate thu
in due course, and for several yea
in succession, will produce growtl
similar to those to which the spo
first owed its being.
This is brief and simple expl
nation of what scientists term cry
fogamic generation. The filarnen
thus formed by the termination
the spores form in their entire
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