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Mushrooms (It is highly important)

It is highly important for those who employ mushrooms as food, to be able to distinguish those which are edible from the poisonous ones. The edible appear in old sod, in a clear, open, sunny field. They are at first very small on a short foot stalk, and are then known as button mushrooms. Their growth is rapid; in an hour the under skin cracks and the mushroom then opens, spreading like an umbrella, and shows the gills underneath, which should be a pale salmon color. In an hour or so it again changes to a dark brown, and is then called "old." According to M. Richard, even mushrooms which are usually edible may prove poisonous, if collected too late, or in places which are too moist.

The skin of the good mushrooms peels off easily. Those with yellow or white gills, and those which grow in low, damp, shady places, or around decayed stumps of old trees, or any other decayed matter, are to be avoided.

The good mushrooms have invariably an agreeable smell, while the poisonous have a rank, putrid smell. It is always safe to use the canned mushrooms, which are convenient and cheap, but tough and indigestible, and we caution those who eat them to masticate diligently.

It is said that one poisonous mushroom among a pint of good ones, will turn a silver spoon black, if stirred with it while they are stewing.