170 BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. 



taking care that the other conditions of the spots 

 selected should be analogous to those of the regular 

 truffle grounds ; and they recommended a judicious 

 thinning of the trees and clearing the surface from 

 brushwood, &c., which prevents at once the bene- 

 ficial effects of rain and of the direct sun's rays. 

 It is added that this species of industry has added 

 much to the value of certain districts of Loudun and 

 Civray, which were previously comparatively worth- 

 less, and has enriched many of the proprietors who 

 now make periodical sowings of acorns, thus bringing 

 in a certain portion of wood as truffle grounds each 

 year. 



Mr Broome was informed by one of the truffle 

 hunters that whenever a plantation of beech, or beech 

 and fir, was made on the chalk districts of Salisbury 

 Plain, after the lapse of a few years truffles were pro- 

 duced, and that these plantations continued pro- 

 ductive for a period of from ten to fifteen years, after 

 which they ceased to be so. 



Should horticulturists be tempted to try their skill 

 in the artificial production of these fungi, they should 

 bear in mind the conditions most suitable to their 

 nature. They might succeed, for instance, in produc- 

 ing them in filbert-plantations, or in gardens thickly 

 set with fruit trees ; and they should plant mature 

 specimens in well trenched ground, on a calcareous 

 substratum, and be careful not to stir the soil to any 

 depth till the autumn or winter of the following year, 



