January, 1906 AMERICAN 
Some shrewd peasants possess an extraordinarily keen 
scent for this sort of game. ‘There are other indications, 
such as cracks in the soil, absence of vegetation, and in fine 
weather swarms of golden-hued flies hovering over the 
trufle ground. But sunshine and flies are rare in the winter 
months, when the truffles attain maturity, and few are the 
fortunate individuals who can find the tubers unaided. 
So recourse is had to animals whose sense of smell is better 
developed than ours. In Dauphiny, Burgundy and Cham- 
pagne, as well as in some parts of Provence and Quercy, the 
dog is pressed into service. This animal is especially well 
adapted to regions where the truffle grounds are scattered, 
because of his quickness of motion and his ability to travel 
great distances. 
The life of the ‘‘rabasseur,” ‘‘caveur” or truffle hunter is 
not altogether a happy one. His most abundant harvest is 
in winter, when north winds are keen and competition is so 
intense that he is forced to begin work very early in the 
morning. The following account of a day in the life of a 
truffle hunter is based on an 
interview obtained by the 
writer at Martignac. 
He rises before daybreak 
and packs a bag or basket 
with food, a gourd of wine 
and a checked handkerchief 
to hold the truffles. He also 
takes a staff and a pick, the 
latter for the purpose of 
carrying on the search to the 
spot indicated by his intelli- 
gent four-footed comrade. 
Often he reaches the hunt- 
ing ground and the hunt 
commences at sunrise. The 
dog sniffs the ground and 
stops over a truffle, which 
the man promptly digs up 
with his pick. If the place 
seems likely he then kneels 
and searches the subsoil 
round about for other 
tubers, pausing now and 
then to encourage his dog 
with a bit of bread. So he 
works on through the day, 
except for a short recess for 
lunch, and after tramping 
many weary miles returns 
to his hut by twilight with 
a few pounds of truffles. 
The yield varies not only with soil and locality, but also 
according to the season. Drought sometimes reduces the 
crop to half its normal amount. 
On the day after the truffles are gathered, the local porter 
or carter conveys them to the chief village of the canton. 
Here they are usually delivered to the “leveur,” who collects 
the product of several neighboring communes and takes it to 
the nearest market town, whither wholesale dealers come to 
purchase it. 
According to M. Mouillefert, the truffle hunter’s dog is 
usually either a water spaniel or a small, smooth-coated pug, 
but almost any breed may be used. The dogs are trained 
for their work by mixing truffle parings with their usual food 
and burying this in the ground, or by burying small truffles 
with pieces of bacon, which the animals are taught to unearth. 
After each find the pupil is rewarded with a morsel of bread. 
A well trained dog is worth from forty to a hundred 
dollars. 
But in districts where truffles abound, and in artificial 
HOMES 
AND GARDENS 37 
truffle plantations which are regularly cropped, hogs are em- 
ployed in the search for this delicacy dear to the epicures of 
two hemispheres. Sows are preferred, because they furnish 
pigs in addition to truffles, and also because, when deprived 
of food, they perform their duties better than boars would 
under the same conditions. 
The sow scents the trufle from afar, goes straight to it, 
digs it up with her snout and would promptly devour it if it 
were not adroitly snatched away and replaced by a handful 
of acorns, chestnuts or maize. She is trained much as a dog 
is, by arousing her olfactory sensibility, and at the age of 
three or four years becomes an expert truffle hunter, finding 
from six to twelve pounds a day, and even more in some arti- 
ficial plantations. But though a healthy sow is able to hunt 
every day she is allowed a day off now and then, as daily hunt- 
ing from the end of November until March would exhaust 
the poor creature. 
After the truflles are gathered they are brushed, to remove 
adhering earth, and the damages are repaired which havebeen 
The “‘ Autoclaves,” or Sterlizers 
made by mice and other small animals that appreciate the un- 
derground mushroom as well as man does. The truffle is also 
attacked by certain small beetles, and two species of flies de- 
posit their eggs in its flesh, which serve the young larve for 
food. All holes are carefully filled with a suitable paste, and 
excrescences due to the pressure of stones and other obstacles 
to growth are pared away. 
Sometimes the deception is carried further. Interior sorts 
are mixed with genuine Perigord truffles, and nails, clay and 
lead are inserted to increase the weight, as the accompany- 
ing radiograph shows. Artificial truffles are even made of 
potatoes, skilfully carved, stained with sulphate of iron and 
scented by prolonged contact with real truffles ! 
Now, as in antiquity, the god of thieves is also the god of 
merchants—some merchants. 
Let us leave these adulterations and return to our truffles. 
The principal French markets are Cahors, Martel, 
Gourdon (Lot), Périgueux, Excidenil, Sarlat (Dordogne), 
Carpentras, Apt (Vancluse) , Montagnac, Manosque ( Basses- 
