Morning journal and courier., 1885-11-24
The Trufie Culture in Southern
 France.


 Toward the middle of November the truf- fe market opens at it's headquarters, the old walled town of Apt, in Vaucluse, where the Roman remains still tell of it's ancient name, Apta Julia, for it was embellished by Caesar.
 Every Saturday from ten to eleven in the forenoon, the peasants arrive with the har- vest of the week tied up in bags or knotted in kerchiefs, and are met by the wholesale buyers from Carpentras, the center of the trufie industry for Provence, whence these delicac1es are dispatched to the home and foreign trader. The sales take place in the course of the afternoon, and a special wagon carries off the produce later on to Carpen- tras. The truff1es are sorted into sizes by hand if the quantity be small; otherwise sieves made of basketwork, with meshes of various dimensions, are employed. It is then that the experts seek to detect the frauds at which the peasants are apt enough; for it's native clay clings obstinately to the truf1e, and convenient holes in the high priced root are thus plugged up to increase the weight, several small tubers are put together to look like fine large one. Gall nuts or green vitriol are employed to obtain the deep black color of the best qualities: and imitation trufies have been detected in Paris made out of potatoes colored to nicety and covered with coat of genuine earth brought from the truff1e grounds of Perigord.
 Although ''truffes de Perigord" has passed into proverbial saying, the department of Vaucluse turns larger revenue out of the too much vaunted tuber cbarium, netting some seven hundred and sixty thousand dol lars year, and the contiguous department of the Bases Apes makes six hundred thou sand dollars. At the other side of France the truffies of Dordogne-Perigord itself ,1,, G-,, z sand dollars, while its neighbor, Lot, gains six hundred thousand dollars by the intelIi- gent labor of its trained pigs and dogs. In Provence the truffie hunters prefer the gor- mandizing pig to the vicarious dog. The strength of the pigs snout, and his handi- ness, so to speak, with that gifted organ, en- ables him to do three parts of the work of digging-a considerable saving of labor to his master, for the roots are we'll hidden and those people who seek the retirement which cellar grants during a storm have a saying of their own when 1t thunders: ''Voi- Ia nn oon temps pour les saanss 1s course dog, by scratching violently with his paws, tires sooner than the pig does and he wounds his feet. The pig wants little or no training, while the dogs education calls for patience and time. A fresh truffie is put into a small box pierced with holes or into old wooden shoe, and the dog is made to recognize the odor. The sabot is then buried in his pres ence, and he is taught to scratch the trufhe up, being rewarded for his pains with bread and lard.
 Until midwinter the truffles are sent out by the dealers in their natural condition, but after that time home consumption falls off for so do the trufies-and all the attention of the trade is turned to the exportation of the timed, bottled and otherwise preserved roots. About three quarters of a century since distiller of Clermont- Ferrand invent ed marasquin de truffes, which he sold at eight francs the pint. There is also said to be a liquid called truffie vinegar. Some have maintained that when trufies get to London their virtue has already been ex- haustad, but that is all nonsense. The truth of the matter is reflected by the falling off of the French home consumption at mid winter Up to that time the new seasons truffies are fresh, edorots and succulent, no matter where they may be. From and after that date they begin to turn fiat, and no one who wishes to pass for having palate should be seen touching one after Candlemas. By coincidence, which some epicures have taken for proof of design in nature, they are in perfection-with turkeys-at Christmas
 There is one good rule: Never keep truf- fes. Whenever you come by them eat them at once. Stuff turkey or a pheasant, or even napkin with them, or season q ragout with them or make Perigueux sauce with them, or stew them in champagne, or make tart of them, or roast them like chestnuts, but seoundum artem, bardees and in quadru- pie papillotes; but by all or any means eat them out of hand. For old truffies, with | their faded perfume or siekly no perfume, l are infinitely inferior to what are known in | foreign lands as the cobbler's truffie, and | that is the modest but admirable Spanish chestnut.
 There is an underground thing, not so | wholly despicable either, which is sometimes | dignifed with the name of the white trut1ie 1 It has strong nutty flavor, with whitt ot garlic in it. The most uneducated pig is | learned enough to go for it, and so in our country districts it is generally discredited as l the stpig nut"