Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-08-31
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING

sonous varieties from the ones which
are edible.
Among most people the name toad
stool is restricted to the poisonous
species Of fungi. and that Of 'mush-
room" to the edible kind. This Is known
! impossible to tell except by trial wheth-
er- a particular mushroom or toadstool
Is poisonous not. A few toadstools
are extremely poisonous. a considerable
number nI are slightly poisonous ,., and the
innocent" that is. not poisonous. Some
of the innocent species are edible.
/ How can l tell an edible from q poi
sonous teadstool?" This question Is Of
Department OF Agriculture. Scientists
| say there is only one way to tell: that
is by studying toadstools and becoming
as familiar with the various kinds as one
| is with the ordinary plants of the hill
and forest and garden. The various
tests which are familiar to the people
of some sections of the country are gen.
orally unreliable. One Of the most COM
mon Of these tests is the so-cal1ed sill
of a silver spoon or coin with the mush-
room while cooking in the belief that the
blackening or the failure to blacken will
determine whether the fungi are safe to
eat or not. 1t has been found out. how
| ever, that both poisonous and innocent
! species of mushrooms will act alike on
silver, and that. therefore, the test is Of
no value. Some people think that IL the
| outer skin of the top of the toadstool
peels off readily the species is edible.
| This test is also unsafe because some
poisonous species also will peel Testing
by tasting, dangerous method. is also
! common in some parts of the country, the
| belief being that poisonous species are bit
| ter or peppery and disagreeable In flavor.
Most poisonous toadstools, however. are
not at all disagreeable as regards flavor
of the raw flesh, and consequently the
taste test offers no certain way to distin-
guish the poisonous from the innocent or
edible toadstools. The presence or lack
| of milky juice when the tOadstoolS are
| broken is thought by some to determine
| their non-poisonous or poisonous charac-
| ter, and the presence Of insects on the
| fungus is also used by some people as an
| indication. These and other tests. how
ever, are known to be equally useless. ac-
| cording to PSYCHOLOGISTS in the United
States Department of Agriculture.
The only certain method to test toad
stools is by eating them, and this process
is tedious and is not recommended, espe-
cially to beginners. The best method,
scientists say, is to learn by the expe-
rience OF others and whenever the oppor-
tunity offers to study the fungus growths
in the field.
Housewives who are fond Of mushrooms
as food accessories or condiments are adj
vised by Uncle Sans experts to purchase
, them whenever possible from men who
have cultivated the fungus. The cult
walton of toadstools is now an established
industry in most parts Of the country
and when mushrooms are purchased from
regular dealers who handle only the Gull
tivated product careful housewife is not
only sure Of getting the edible kind, but
usually may procure a mushroom which
is of more delicate texture and Of more
| HI g. 1t,
at haphazard from unknown dealers.
Plans have been perfected for two i'm
portant extensions of Uncle Sans new
agri cultural news
Extending News service. During the
.ea-,A coming week the
OF Agriculture. Depar tment of
Agriculture will issue the first num-
Der of Its new publication, the Agri-
cultural Outlook. This new periodical
is not connected in any way with
the magazine whose name 1t is like,
in part, and which is edited by Dr.
Lyman Abbott and former President
Roosevelt. but it is new government
medium for disseminating farm informa-
ton throughout the country.
The Agricultural Outlook will have no
|
Secretary Galloway expresses it, the
magazine will be published every little
WHILE just when it is thought that spe-
cial Information on crop, weather and
market conditions is desired by farmers.
The articles are to be written in popular
style, and the promise is made that they
will be made interesting enough to make
the farmer want to read them In pref
erence to all other literature. after, the
days work is over. Although the new
publication will be issued as a magazine,
1t will be included officially as one of the
series Of farmers bulletins of the Agri
cultural Department and may be OBJ
tanned on request like other printed docu-
ments.
The second important innovation to be
made within few days in disseminating
information on agricultural conditions
throughout the country will be the estab-
lishment of telegraphic news service
which will. in part take the place of the
old style crop reports which have been
issued during former administrations.
This Is an entirely new feature In gov
eminent publicity methods. and is ex-
pected to be of great service to farmers
in all parts of the United States. DIR.
Galloway has held number of con-
ferences during the past week with Prof.
Charles F. Marvin. the chief of the
weather bureau. and plan for starting
the service is now practically completed.
The new service will make for both
speed and economy In putting out crop
information Skeleton reports of crop
conditions in a state will be forwarded
to the states central weather bureau
station. At these central stations the
government already has an equipment
Of printing presses and when the crop
figures are telegraphed from Washing
ton, where they are sent by the hundreds
of trained crop correspondents. they will
be inserted in the blank spaces in the
skeleton reports, duplicated and mailed
to all the papers over the state. BY pre-
pairing skeleton reports in advance 1t be-
comes necessary to use the telegraph for
sending only the newly gathered figures.
and the expense is kept very low. 1t is
estimated now that the cost Of telegraph
ing the figures for each crop report will
average only IS cents for each state.
for the crop figures to be gathered, for
the reports to be edited, printed and
mailed out over the country. and when
received often the news was stale and
of little or no benefit to farmers. Under
the plan on which the Geographic news
service will be organized all OF the pa
pers in a state will receive Simultaneous
ly in the mail the crop report containing
facts and figures gathered in Washing
ton and telegraphed the previous day.
The preparation and distribution of the
future crop reports will require only a
small fraction of the time necessary to
get the old style reports to the people.
Both the Agricultural Outlook and the
new Geographic news service will do
more to inform farmers and others in
terested in agriculture crop conditions
and general farm news than any other
medium Of disseminating agricultural in
formation which has ever been adopted
by the government, in the opinion of Of
ficialS of the Department of Agriculture.