July 3, 18SG. ] 



JOUKNAL OF HOItTICULTUUE AND COTTAGE GA.UDENEK. 



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Some trees appear to be moro favourable to the production 

 of Truffles than others. Oak and Hornbeam are especially 

 mentioned; but, besides these, Chestnut, Birch, Box, and 



Hazel are alluded to. I bavc generally found Tuber icstivum 

 under Beech trees, but also under Hazel ; Tuber maciosporum 

 under Oaks ; ami T. brumale under Oaks and Abele. Tbe men 

 who collect Truffles for Covent Garden obtain tbem chiefly 

 under Beeoh, and in mixed plantations of Fir and Beech. The 

 (Truffle-grounds of Franco are remarkable for the sterility of 

 the surfaoe, the cause of which has given rise to many conjec- 

 tures —viz., that Trullles exercise a pn judicial inlluence on all 

 plants in contact with or proximity to themselves, by appro- 

 priating their nutriment in a manner similar to the llhizoc- 

 tonia? ; but a more probable reason of this sterility is the fre- 

 quent digging to which the Truffle-grounds are subjected by 

 the collectors ; for, as Truffles are not truly parasitic, it would 

 attribute an inconceivable amount of influence to their myce- 

 lium to suppose them capable by its means of destroying all 

 the surrounding vegetation. And we may remark, that some 

 species occur in grassy places, as in the forest of Vincennes, 

 according to Tulasne ; and so with T. macrosporum and 

 T. brumale, as I find them. It seems to be a better explana- 

 tion of this sterility, so generally accompanying Truffles, that 

 they can only succeed well where they find a comparative free- 

 dom from other vegetable growth, arising from causes inde- 

 pendent of themselves, and that they are the result, and not 

 the cause, of this sterility. 



In common with many other Fungi, Truffles do not bear to 

 be disturbed in their early stages ; so that the collectors are 

 careful in their researches after the summer species, as T. aosti- 

 vum and T. mesentericum, not to stir the ground more deeply 

 than is absolutely necessary, as by so doing they would destroy 

 the winter crop of the more valuable kinds, T. melanosporum 

 and T. brumale. Any disturbance of the soil in winter, when 

 the latter are mature, does no harm, but rather aids in their 

 culture, by rendering the mould more suitable for the germi- 

 nation of their spores and the growth of their mycelium. 

 From Messrs. Tulasne's observations it would seem that three 

 or four months suffice for the development of these plants ; 

 they state that they have met with Tuber mesentericum about 

 as large as grains of Millet in the beginning of October, which 

 must acquire their full size before the end of December ; for 

 about that time they find this species in its mature condition 

 alone. And it is supposed that the warm rains of August are 

 highly conducive to the fertility of the Truffle-ground, and 

 that the abundance or scantiness of the crop depends very 

 much on the nature of that period. These plants grow with- 

 out any special care or tendance ; but as they are not unfre- 

 quently found, both in France and Italy, on the borders of 

 corn fields, where they are ploughed up in the cultivation of 

 the land, it would seem that they succeed as well in ground 

 that has been stirred and manured as in that which has been 

 left to its natural condition. 



Some notion may be obtained of the extent to which the 

 trade in Truffles is carried in France, when we read that in the 

 market of Apt alone 1600 kilogrammes (about 3500 lbs.), are 

 exposed for sale every week in the height of tho season, and 

 that the lowest estimate of the quantity sold during the winter 

 amounts to 15,000 kilogrammes (nearly 33.000 lbs, weight). 

 According to another account, the Department of Vaucluse 

 yields from 125,900 to 30,009 kilogrammes annuallv. The vast 

 quantity that must, therefore, be procured and sold in all the 

 French provinces where they grow, and the large revenue 

 arising theiefrom, should be a great inducement to the pro- 

 prietors of suitable localities to attempt their cultivation in 

 England. 



Many trials have been made to subject these vegetables to a 

 regular system of culture, but hitherto without success. We 

 owe to the Count de Borch and to M. de Bornholz the chief 

 accounts of these attempts. They inform us that a compost 

 was prepared of pure m< ul I and vegetable soil, mixed with dry 

 leaves and Bawdust, in which, when properly moistened, mature 

 Truffles were placed in winter, either whole or in fragments, 

 and that after the lapse of some time small Truffles were found 

 in the compost. But the result was discouraging rather than 

 otherwise. The most successful plan consisted in sowing 

 acorns over a considerable extent of land of a calcareous 

 nature ; and when the young Oaks had attained the age of ten 

 or twelve years, Truffles were found in the intervals between 

 the trees. This process was carried on in the neighbourhood 

 of Loudun, where Truffle-beds had formerly existed, but where 

 they had loag ceased to be productive— a fact indicating the 



aptitude of tho soil for tho purpose. In this case no attempt 

 was made to produce Truffles by placing ripe specimens in the 

 earth ; but they Sprang up of themselves, from spores probably 

 contained in tho soil. The young trees were left rather wide 

 apart, and were cut for tho first time about tho twelfth year 

 from the sowing, and afterwards at intervals of from seven to 

 nine years. Truffles were thus obtained for a poriod of from 

 twenty-five to thirty years, after which the plantations ceaBed 

 to be productive, owing, it was said, to tho ground being too 

 much shaded by the branches of tho young trees, a remedy for 

 which might have been found by thinning out the treos ; but 

 this would not be adopted till all the barren tracts culled 

 " galluches," had been planted. Tho brushwood, by being 

 thus thinned-out, would be converted into timber trees, and 

 the Truffle-grounds rendered permanent, like those of Toitou, 

 which are commonly situated under the shade of lofty trees. 

 It is the opinion of the Messrs. Tulasne that the regular culti- 

 vation of Truffles in gardens can never be so successful as this 

 so-called indirect culture at Loudun, &c. ; hut they think that 

 a satisfactory result might be obtained in suitable soils by 

 planting fragments of mature Truffles in wooded localities, 

 taking care that the other conditions of the spots selected 

 should be analogous to those of the regular Truffle-grounds ; 

 and they recommend a judicious thinning of the trees, and 

 clearing the surface from brushwood, &c, which prevents at 

 once tho beneficial effects of rain and of the direct sun-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 worthless, 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. At Bonardeline, for instance, the annual return 

 from Truffles iu a plantation of less than half an acre, was 

 from £4 to £5. Another case is adduced in the arrondisse- 

 ment of Apt, where several proprietors have made plantations : 

 the trees are left about 5 or C yards apart ; and so soon as 

 their branches meet and shade the ground too much, they are 

 thinned-out. 



The districts of England especially suited to produce Truffles 

 would thus appear to be situated on the great band of calcare- 

 ous beds which run diagonally across the island from the south- 

 eastern corner of Devonshire to the mouth of the Wash in 

 Norfolk, occupying all the country that lies to the south-east 

 of such a line, including the counties of Somerset, Dorset, 

 Wilts, Gloucester, Hampshire, Berkshire, Kent, Hertfordshire, 

 and parts of Northampton, Norfolk, and Lincoln ; and it is to 

 the proprietors of land in those districts that we must look for 

 any successful attempts to cultivate these Fungi. 



A great proportion of the Truffles exposed for sale in Covent 

 Garden comes from Wiltshire and Hampshire, and the opinions 

 of those who make it their business to collect them coincide 

 completely with those of Messrs. Tulasne cited above. I have 

 been informed by one of these men, that whenever a plantation 

 of Beech, or Beech and Fir, is made on the chalk districts of 

 Salisbury Plain, after the lapse of a few years Truffles are pro- 

 duced ; and that these plantations continue productive for a 

 period of from ten to fifteen years, after which they cease to 

 be so. It has been observed that the species most available 

 for culinary purposes with us is Tuber a>stivum, a species con- 

 sidered in France as of far less value than T. melanosporum 

 and T. brumale ; and it might be worth while to obtain well- 

 matured specimens of these species from France, and dis- 

 tribute them while quite fresh in some locality producing our 

 indigenous kinds, to ascertain if we could not thus obtain a 

 superior race of Truffles. Tuber astivum is commonly worth 

 about 2s. Gd, per 1 lb. in Covent Garden, whilst in Italy 

 Tuber magnatum fetches from fifteen to seventeen francs, and 

 T. melanosporum almost as much. 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 as above recorded. They might succeed, for 

 instance, in producing them in Filbert-plantations or in gar- 

 dens 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, in order not to disturb th 

 mycelium ; and it would be well perhaps, in case they find a 

 successful result, not to take too largely of the crop the first 

 year or two, but to give them timo to establish themselves 

 thoroughly in the locality. It would seem, however, that, 

 when once established, deep stirrings of the soil would tend 

 rather to encourage than to check their increa-o, as giving the 



