390 Instructions for Truffle-Searching. 



a premium of 100/. would not be too much to offer for the suc- 

 cessful propagation and cultivation of tiiis fungus.] 



Preface of the Translator. — The translation of the following 

 treatise on truffle-hunting properly precedes that on the cultiva- 

 tion of truffles ; as well because the tubers are directed to be 

 planted in ground prepared for their cultivation (which cannot 

 be done unless they are previously found), as because the diffi- 

 culties attending their cultivation are mentioned in the first- 

 mentioned treatise, in such a manner as to induce strict attention 

 to the precepts laid down in the second. The pamphlet has the 

 following title : Anleitung zur Triiffeljagd^ cin Bei/irag zur Forst- 

 jind Jagd-lVissc7ischaJl ; von V. F. Fischer, Karlsruhe, 1812; 

 bey Mohr und Zimnier in Heidelberg. It, as well as the treatise 

 on the cultivation of truffles, has been carefully translated, as 

 it seemed important that the ideas of those whose endeavours, 

 either in the search or cultivation of these singular productions, 

 had been crowned with success, should be faithfully presented 

 to the reader : more especially as the attempts, both of cultivators 

 and philosophers, of all former ages, and of all civilised covm- 

 tries, to multiply truffles like other vegetables, have, till a few 

 years ago, been completely baffled. — F. M. 



§ 1. The Inducement to this Work. — " Is any thing printed 

 wherein instructions are given for what is usually called truffle- 

 hunting, or truffle-searching, and for training such dogs as are 

 required in it ? " Such was the enquiry made in the esteemed 

 Forest Journal of Hartig, by an anonymous person who wished 

 to know the title of such a work, or to read in that journal a 

 short treatise upon the subject. The celebrated editor of that 

 publication added the following remark to liis correspondent's 

 query : " The only treatise with which I am acquainted (and 

 that is by no means a complete one), on what is called truffle- 

 hunting, is in the Manual of the Practical Forest and Hunting 

 Departments^ part iii. p. 316. A complete treatise on this sub- 

 ject would "assuredly not be unacceptable to the readers of this 

 journal." 



Many readers of the Forest Journal, in consequence, looked 

 eagerly forward to a complete treatise on this subject, a subject 

 upon which so little had as yet been written. But alas ! very 

 soon after this the publication of the Journal ceased, and the 

 wishes of the person who first mentioned the subject, as well 

 as those of M. Hartig and his readers, remained unsatisfied ; 

 and, notwithstanding the multiplicity as well of authors as of 

 compilers, no work upon this subject appeared. I previously pos- 

 sessed some theoretical and practical knowledge of truffle- search- 

 ing ; and, fi'om vicissitudes in the nature of my office, had an 

 ojiportunity of extending the latter, by the actual exercise of 



