Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-02-16
IRUFFLE TRAFFIC.
GATHERING THE ESCILENT
TUBER FOR Table USE.
What Truffles Are-Tricks Of Adui-
teratiOn-IIOgs and Dogs Trained
i'm France TO Hunt Them
Where They Grow.

W MI AHN9 tA'
URING scarce seasons, writes
Henry Haynie, in Paris let
- ter to the Picayune, trufties
have realized two guineas
per pound, and therefore they are
very costly in relation to the nutri-
ment supplied Still they are aroma
tic, agreeable and fashionable foods,
though they are rather difficult Of
digestion.
The export of truales from France
has of late years assumed very large
proportion. Unfortunately for lovers
of these delicious tubers, like most
other comestibles, they have not es-
capped adulteration, and the tricks of
those who tsmper with the necessaries
and luxuries of the table. The truf-
hes of export and commerce are com
posed of old cloth bought of the rag
eatherers and made into pulp, and
afterward hardened, or, if the mer-
chant is really conscientious, of dis
eased potatoes. Tie blush tint Of the
sickly vegetable is said to be easily
changed for the genuine truffie colcr
by little chemical sleight of hand,
and when the desired effect Is OBJ
tanned, the imposter IS carefully
shaped aud rolled in a soil prepared
for the purpose, much after the fash
ion confectioners employ IN coating
almonds with sugar Thus manipula-
ted, the homely but diseased potato
becomes the aristocratic trufle.
If this practice is really carried out
to any great extent it is not surprising
that persons who taste the supposed
delicacy for the first time aver that
they do not find anything extraordi-
narv in truhies That trufies are fraud
ulently dealt with, and that sham truf-
Aes, when cut up in pieces in pies and
other comeshbles, are freely used can
not be gainsaid The gray and almost
volueless tubers are darkened and
mixed with scraps Of the Perigord to
give them something like a proper
taste. and whole trunies are often ar
sistically stuffed with clay to increase
their size and weight, while walnut
rinds and a variety of nuts are also
used for the real article. Thus truf-
aes are no exception to the category
of mundane ya1ities.
The trufle hunting or collecting
season may be said to open with Octo'
Der and concludes with the end of the
wear. though with view to future
production it is thought better not to
disturb the ground after the end OF
November. Truiies from the Latin
tuberl, like mushrooms, belong to the
great family OF the fungi but are IL
distinct and very peculiar genus. They
are very cryptogamic plants, and sub
terranean in their habits, their posi-
tion beneath the soil varying from one
10 two inches to two feet in depth.
They have neither root stem nor leai'
and are of different shades OF color,
from light brown to black. They are
more or less globulAr in form, and
vary in size from that of iilbert to
that Of large egg. Their surface Is
knotty or warty; and covered with a
skin which forms sort Of network OF
serpentine veins.
Truhles grow in pastures and on
open downs far away from any trees,
as we'll as under their shade. They
prefer loose soils and affect the neigh
borhood of trees, especially oak, beech
and chestnuts, though they do not
grow in aay large numbers in thick
woods.
Trufles are found IN most temperate
parts of the world, and are fairly com
mon in central and southern Europe,
particularly in France, where the
Poitou and Perigord districts are
most prolific, and in Italy, where Pied
mont carries of the palm. Algeria
also contributes quantity. They are
found in various parts in the southern
districts of England, but they are by
no means as common as they once
were.
French trufies are decided -