38 AMERICAN HOMES 
Alpes), Brive (Corréze) and a few others of minor im- 
portance. 
For the four departments which produce the largest crops 
of truffles the figures for 1899 are: Lot, 152 tons; Van- 
cluse, 150 tons; Drome, 135 tons; Dordogne, go tons. 
The price fluctuates from 7 to 25 francs a kilogram (65 
cents to $2.25 a pound), sometimes reaching 30 francs a kilo- 
gram ($2.75 a pound) in very dry seasons. 
But let us leave the statistical and turn to the picturesque 
aspect of the truffle market, imagining ourselves transported 
to Martel on a Wednesday or Saturday in December. 
The truffles are not displayed in the market place, but are 
hidden as if they were contraband goods. ‘The ‘‘leveur’’ de- 
posits his carefully packed baskets in rooms put gratuitously 
at his disposal by the proprietor of a hotel or café, and then 
sallies forth to meet the buyers, who are distinguished by 
their more careful attire and by their purses attached to 
shoulder belts. 
Telegrams announcing the condition of the market at 
SR 
~~ 
Cooking the Filled Jars and Boxes 
other places begin to arrive at 2 o’clock, but at Marte 
there is little activity till after 4 o’clock. Then the cafés light 
up and the baskets of truffles are unpacked on billiard tables 
and other tables incumbered with beer and absinthe glasses. 
The buyers examine the truffles, test their weight and con- 
verse in low tones with the sellers. But the pitch of voices 
soon arises, shouts are heard, and, amid wild excitement, the 
truffles are bought and sold in lots or by the kilogram. Then 
comes a period of calm as the final weighings are made. 
The truffles are delivered in rectangular willow ‘“‘cham- 
pagne’” baskets of various sizes, lined with straw paper to 
prevent contact of the truffles with the basket, which would 
impair their flavor. These baskets, packed, corded and 
sealed under the supervision of the buyers, are then sent tothe 
station, to be picked up by the 8 o’clock train and forwarded 
to Cahors, Paris, Carpentras, Sarlat, Périgueux or Souillac. 
Meanwhile payments are made and buyers and sellers sit at 
At 11 o'clock the little town 
has resumed its usual calm and tranquil aspect. 
tables and refresh themselves. 
AND. "GA RDENS January, 1906 
Arrived at their destination, the baskets are emptied .on 
long tables and ‘sorted into three grades, according to size. 
Sometimes, however, the classification is not altogether by 
size, as the value of a truffle depends to a great extent on its 
uniform roundness and its texture and ripeness. In addition 
to the truffles which are consumed in the fresh state a great 
many go to the canneries and paté de foies gras factories. The 
following description applies to the La Forest establishment 
at Périgueux, where the various photographs were taken. 
One of these shows a number of women washing and 
cleaning trufles. Before each woman stands a tub in which 
truffles are soaking in water. The tubers are taken out one 
by one, carefully washed to remove every particle of earthly 
matter, and passed to the women on the opposite side of the 
long table, who remove part of the skin. The parings are 
not thrown away, but are utilized in various ways. Then the 
washed and peeled truffles are carried by boys to the left hand 
table, where other women pack them in bottles and tin boxes. 
The boxes, bottles and jars, whether filled with truffles, 
foie gras or alternate layers 
of the two, are next cooked 
in an oven and hermetically 
sealed, by soldering or 
otherwise. Then they go 
to the ‘‘autoclaves,”’ or 
sterilizers, of which three 
are shown in one of the 
illustrations. From the 
first the sterilized jars, con- 
tained in a perforated cyl- 
inder, are being removed 
with the aid of a traveling 
crane. A woman is filling 
the cylinder of the second 
with filled and sealed jars, 
while in the third ‘‘auto- 
clave,” in the background, 
the sterilizing process is 
going on under the fore- 
man’s supervision. The 
time of starting each ap- 
paratus is marked on a 
blackboard. 
The sterilizing process is 
as delicate as it is important. 
The pressure (which con- 
trols the temperature) of 
each apparatus is indicated 
by a manometer and must 
be kept constant throughout 
the operation. After being 
sterilized the jars and boxes of truffles go to another room to 
be washed, labeled and packed for shipment. 
This is not the place for an account of the culinary uses 
of the truflle. Whether served alone ‘‘a la Périgueux,” or 
‘a la Provencale,” or employed to flavor chickens and 
turkeys, it is a delicacy highly appreciated by the gourmets 
of the whole world. 
Goop resolutions for the house are always in order. The 
first of January is a no more convenient season for such 
agreeable resolutions than any other. The house year, in 
fact, scarcely begins with the first of January, but seems to 
be more properly started with the spring housecleaning, 
which is still several months away. Then, if ever, is the time 
for good resolutions, resolutions that sometimes need to be 
kept within reasonable bounds; for the number and variety 
of things to be done in a house, the number of betterments 
which may be introduced, the number of changes which 
seem desirable to make, often surpass belief. 
