THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Sept. 
»2 ON TRUFFLES. 
well where they find a comparative freedom from other vegetable 
growth, arising from causes independent of themselves, and that they 
are the result, and not the cause, of this sterility. 
In common with many other fungi, truffles do not bear to be dis- 
turbed in their early stages ; so that the collectors are careful in their 
researches after the summer species, as 7. cestivum and T. mesentericum, 
not to stir the ground more deeply than is absolutely necessary, as by 
so doing they would destroy the winter crop of the more valuable kinds, 
T. melanosporum and T. brumale. Any disturbance of the soil in the 
winter, when the latter are mature, does no haim, but rather aids in 
their culture, by rendering the mould more suitable for the germination 
of their spores and the growth of their mycelium. From Messrs. 
Tulasnes' observations it would seem that three or four months suffice 
for the development of these plants ; they state that they have met v\ith 
luher mesentericum about as large as grains of millet in the beginning of 
October, which must acquire their full size before the end of December ; 
for about that time they find this species in its mature condition alone. 
And it is supposed that the warm rains of August are highly conducive 
to the fertility of the truffle-ground, and that the abundance or scanti- 
ness of the crop depends very much on the nature of that period. These 
plants grow without any special care or tendance ; but as they are not 
unfiequently found, both in France and Italy, on the borders of corn- 
fields, where they are ploughed up in the cultivation of the land, it 
would seem that they succeed as well in ground that has been stirred 
and manured, as in that which has been left in its natural condition. 
Some notion may be obtained of the extent to which the trade in 
truffles is carried on in France, when we read that in the market of Apt 
about 1,600 kilogrammes (about 8,500 lbs-) are exposed for sale every 
week in the height of the season, and that the lowest estimate of the 
quantity sold during the winter amounts to 15,000 kilogrammes (nearly 
33,000 lbs. weight). According to another account, the Department of 
Vaucluse yields from 25,900 to 30,000 kilogrammes annually. The vast 
quantity that must, therefore, be procured and sold in all the French 
provinces where they grow, and the large revenue arising therefrom should 
be a great inducement to the proprietors of suitable localities to attempt 
their cultivation in England. 
Many trials have been made to subject these vegetables to a regular 
system of culture, but hitherto without success. We owe to the Count 
de Borch and M. Bornholtz the chief accounts of these attempts. They 
inform us that a compost was prepared of pure mould and vegetable 
soil, mixed with dry leaves and sawdust, in which, when properly 
moistened, mature truffles were placed in winter, either whole or in 
fragments and that, after a lapse of some time, small truffles were found 
in the compost. But the result was discouraging rather than otherwise. 
The most successful plan consisted in sowing acorns over a considerable 
extent of land of a calcareous nature ; and when the young oaks had 
