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 Prance, 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, f 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, truffles are found 

 in the intervals between the trees. This process was carried on 

 in the neighbourhood of Loudun, where truffle-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. 



