410 Cultivation of Truffles. 



as food for worms and for swine, and people are satisfied with 

 such as the industrious French or Italians have sought out in 

 their own country, and have sent abroad as merchandise. 



As truffles are produced in woods, the proprietors of woods 

 are the only persons that are entitled to cause them to be dug 

 out. Only a few proprietors of extensive landed property or 

 of large gardens possess woods, or, even if they have such, the 

 soil of the wood does not possess such a mixture of earths as 

 this species of fungus requires for its production and growth. 

 It cannot therefore be produced, and the proprietor of landed 

 property is compelled to purchase fresh truffles elsewhere ; or, 

 since they grow only in few places, and are generally sold to 

 favourites, must accommodate himself with such bad ones as are 

 offered for sale. 



The relish of the truffle arises from very fine n)atter, which 

 is so volatile that it rises through the strata of earth, and betrays 

 at the surface the deeply hidden fungus to certain animals en- 

 dowed with an acute sense of smelling. In order to preserve 

 this volatile matter from escaping, those truffles which are in- 

 tended for sale by the Fi'ench and Italians are preserved or 

 marinated, enclosed in glasses from which the air is excluded, 

 or dipped in oil, and then wrapped up in waxed paper. Notwith- 

 standing all these contrivances, this valuable matter cannot be 

 completely retained ; and the bought truffles are as much inferior 

 to fresh ones that have been lately dug up, as asparagus pickled 

 or dried for winter consumption, or the beans and peas pre- 

 served in the same way, are to the same fresh vegetables cooked 

 in spring and summer. 



It must be very desirable to every proprietor of lands and 

 gardens to become acquainted with a practice by which he can 

 raise truffles himself. By such means the pleasures of the table 

 will be enhanced, or, if he should prefer it, the profit of his 

 landed property will be increased by the sale of fresh truffles. 

 It is long ago that the great advantages which such cultivation 

 would produce have been perceived ; and in the last century 

 many attempts were made, although fruitlessly, to transplant 

 *and cultivate truffles. How, indeed, could it have been possible 

 to transplant, with the requisite skill, a fungus, the nature of 

 which was totally unknown, and the circumstances under which 

 it was possible for it to arise and thrive were not attended to ? 



Whether truffles, as fungi in general, should be ranked 

 amongst plants or animals, was a disputed point : but now the 

 conviction is, that they belong exclusively to neither, but stand 

 in the midst between the two kingdoms, and incline equally to 

 both. They are not propagated by seeds, as was formerly be- 

 lieved ; but are formed in the upper strata of the earth, as hyda- 

 tids in animal bodies, or the infusoria, visible only to the eye 



