182 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



November 4, 1862. 

 Prof. J. A. Nash in the chair. 



Truffles — Are there any in this Country? 



Prof. Mapes called the attention of members, and he hoped through the 

 published proceedings of the meeting to call the attention of people all 

 over the country, to the subject of truffles, so far as to ascertain if there 

 are any to be found upon this side of the Atl5,ntic. He said that it was 

 only within a comparatively short period that they were discovered in 

 England. Formerly they were imported from the continent — now there is 

 a home supply. We import about $12,000 worth a year, and they are 

 retailed in this city at $1 a pound, and are used in cooking as a flavor- 

 ing substance. One of the peculiarities about truffles is that they do not 

 appear to have either root or stem. Gathering them is quite a business in 

 France, Italy and Germany, and it is possible it may become so in this 

 country. If they were more plenty and cheaper the consumption would be 

 greatly increased. It is very large in Paris, but they cannot be artificially 

 produced, as mushrooms are. 



The Secretary read the following account of the truffle from Bryant's 

 Flora Difetetica, a history of esculent plants: 



" The truffle is a solid fu;igus of a globular figure, and grows under the 

 surface of the ground, so as to be totally hidden. It has a rough, blackish 

 coat, and is destitute of fibers. The manner of its propagation is entirely 

 unknown. Cooks are well acquainted with its use and quality. It is. 

 found in woods and pastures in some parts of Kent, but is not very com- 

 mon in England. In France and Spain truffles are very frequent, and grow 

 to a much larger size than they do here (England). In these places the 

 peasants find it worth their while to search for them, and they train up 

 dogs and swine for this purpose, who, after they have been inured to the 

 smell, by their masters frequently placing some in their way, will readily 

 scrape them up as they ramble the fields and woods." 



A New Sweet Apple. 



Mr. Eli Moore, of New Britain, Hartford county, Connecticut, sends a 

 sample of the "flat sweet" apple, which is much liked by all who have 

 tasted it. He says : 



"It is a very valuable apple, but is little known excepting in my imme- 

 diate vicinity. My farm, on which they were raised, and which has pro- 

 duced, probably, for forty years, more than all others (for they are little 

 cultivated because little known), and for market they have the bare name 

 ' Sweet,' is in Southington, Hartford county. It is an excellent cooking 

 apple in- various ways; and as for dessert, or eating raw, there are very 

 few who do not like it. It is fine for baking, although the ' Lyman's 

 Pumpkin Sweet' may have some characteristics which are preferable. It 

 will make a good dumpling also, and as for apple sauce, we used it so 

 many years as the only apple, that we in our family universally call it the 

 ' sauce apple.' That was before we thought of picking them for winter. 

 They are ripe about the first of October, beginning to fall off pretty fast, 





