e unhesitatingly in the case of middling or weak spawn.

Mr. S. Henshaw, in Henderson's Handbook of Plants, tells us: "The
quality of the spawn may be very easily detected by the mushroom-like
smell, ... and I should have no hesitation in picking out good spawn in
the dark." Sanguine, surely, but I have tried it and found the test
wanting. M. Lachaume says that good spawn shows "an abundance of
bluish-white filaments well fitted together, and giving off a strongly
marked odor of mushrooms. All those portions which show traces of white
or yellow mold or have a floury appearance, should be rejected and
destroyed." Mr. Wright says: "A brick may be a mass of moldiness, and
yet be quite worthless; and if the mold has a spotted appearance, as if
fine white sand had been dredged on and through the mass, it is certain
there is no mushroom-growing power there.... If thick threads pass
through the mass and there are signs of miniature tubercles on them,
then the spawn may be regarded as too far gone.... Clusters of white
specks on the spawn denote sterility."

Mr. A. D. Cowan, of New York, who has the reputation of being an
excellent judge of mushroom spawn, writes me: "To correctly judge the
quality of brick spawn by its appearance requires experience in handling
it, and a trained eye which enables one quickly to detect good from bad,
fair to middling. As two lots seldom come exactly or nearly alike in
appearance, it is hardly possible to give precise rules to follow,
excepting the never-failing requisite which the spawn must possess to be
good, namely, the moldy appearance on the surface, the more the better,
without showing threads. Too many of these to a given space are a sure
indication of exhausted vitality, arising generally from the bricks
being heaped together when in process of manufacture, before they are
sufficiently dried. Healthy bricks are usually of a dusty brown color,
and of light weight. Black colored spawn is to be avoided, as a rule,
and when the black appearance is very prevalent in a cargo of bricks it
is a strong indication that the spawn has not run its course; and as it
is not expected to do so after it has reached the hands of the retailer
it is economy to cast it aside. Some persons break a brick into several
pieces to see how it looks inside. To the experienced eye this is not
necessary, or even to lay hands upon it, as the outward moldy appearance
is the best of all evidence of its healthy vitality,