424; Cultivation of Triiffles. 



to the access of the air, or even to that of the sun's rays. On 

 this account, the planting of them must take place only in the 

 evening, when the sun is gone down, or in very cloudy weather. 

 Holes of the depth required must be made beforehand, the bot- 

 toms of which must be strewed with soil out of the case; then 

 each truffle must be carefully lifted up, with the soil that is 

 about it, planted, and the soil that still remains in the case be 

 distributed in the holes. If the holes are not filled with this, 

 they must be filled with the soil of their new situation, which 

 must be moistened with repeated sprinklings of water. The 

 new plantation must then be amply covered with twigs cut from 

 the oak or hornbeam ; and the soil must be planted with young 

 trees of these kinds, not crowded, but at such a distance as to 

 give sufficient shade, so as to prevent the land from being 

 dried up. 



The best time for transplanting truffles is towards the middle 

 of spring and in the beginning of autumn, about which latter 

 season the greatest number of half-grown truffles is to be found. 

 About this time, the land is usually moist enough of itself, so 

 that it is not necessary to water it to pi'event its being dried up. 

 But, in case it should be dry from great drought, it must assuredly 

 be moistened in this manner; in doing which, the water, never- 

 theless, must not be poured on in streams, as the germinating 

 brood would thereby be easily choked, or entirely destroyed. 

 It has already been observed, that, in the succeeding autumn, 

 the new plantation should be covered with a layer of oak 

 leaves. 



The plantation thus remains undisturbed till the next autumn, 

 only that it is to be freed fi'om large plants that shade it too 

 much, and exhaust all the strength of the soil ; but small fine 

 grasses must be suffered to remain, as they give the ground 

 beneficial shade, and prevent too great exhalation. In general, 

 at least in the first years, let endeavours be made to imitate the 

 wood soil as much as possible, in order to obtain the sooner a 

 rich return of truffles. 



In the first year, the truffles will be little increased. These 

 fungi have, as yet, too little strength to act powerfully upon the 

 environs, and to compel them to bring forth a large number of 

 tubers. If the plantations have been made in the spring, there 

 will be found in the next autumn some few young truffles, about 

 the size of a nut, with a yellowish outer rind, and of a spongy 

 consistence ; an indication that they must remain a longer time 

 to attain their ripeness, and, along with it, their firm consistence 

 and dark colour. In the mean time, these young truffles are 

 the most certain indication that the plantation has succeeded, 

 and that a well-furnished truffle bed will be obtained in the 

 sequel. It is very advisable, in a large plantation, to renew the 



