CULTIVATION. 259 
oaks and abele. The men who collect truffles for Covent Gar- 
den Market obtain them chiefly under beech, and in mixed 
plantations of fir and beech.* 
Some notion may be obtained of the extent to which the trade 
of truffles is carried in France, when we learn that in the market 
of Apt alone about 3,500 pounds of truffles are exposed for sale 
every week during the height of the season, and the quantity 
sold during the winter reaches upwards of 60,000 pounds, whilst 
the Department of Vaucluse yields annually upwards of 60,000 
pounds. It may be interesting here to state that the value of 
truffles is so great in Italy that precautions are taken against 
truffle poachers, much in the same way as against game poachers 
in England. They train their dogs so skilfully that, while they 
stand on the outside of the truffle grounds, the dogs go in and 
dig for the fungi. Though there are multitudes of species, 
they bring out those only which are of market value. Some 
dogs, however, are employed by botanists, which will hunt for 
any especial species that may be shown to them. The great 
difficulty is to prevent them devouring tho truffles, of which 
they are very fond. The best dogs, indeed, are true retrievers. 
The Count de Borch and M. de Bornholz give the chief ac- 
counts of the efforts that have been made towards the cultivation 
of these fungi. They state that a compost is prepared of pure 
mould and vegetable soil mixed with dry leaves and sawdust, in 
which, when properly moistened, mature truffles are placed in 
winter, either whole or in fragments, and that after the lapse of 
some time small truffles are found in the compost.+ The most 
successful plan consists in sowing acorns over a considerable 
extent of land of a calcareous nature ; and when the young oaks 
have attained the age of ten or twelve years, trufiles are found 
in the intervals between the trees. This process was carried on 
in the neighbourhood of Loudun, where truftle-beds had formerly 
existed, but where they had long ceased to be productive—a fact 
indicating the aptitude of the soil for the purpose. In this case 
* Broome, “On Truffle Culture,” in “Journ. Hort. Soc.” i. p. 15 (1866). 
+ No faith, however, is, in general, placed on these treatises, as they were 
merely conjectural. 
