Truffles are thus an integral part of the web of animal and plant life in a for- est. The Perigord truffle thrives on the roots of oak trees. It is culti- vated in Europe by planting groves of inoculated oak trees on calcerious ter- rain known to favour the truffle symbiosis. Considerable success has been achieved TUBER MAGNATUM with this method in ithe white truffle from the Italian Piedmont limited areas of . - France but there remains the problem of finding and harvesting truffles.

Jean Pagnol in his charming and practical book on truffle cul- ture, 'La Truffe', talks of the use of pigs and dogs to root out these treasures but he also mentions three other more esoteric methods for those not fortunate enough to possess a truffle hound. He explains that you can find truffles by sound. When one is above a truffle a change in resonance can be heard when one taps the ground. He remarks that this requires a very well trained ear: Another method is to go out after a rain shower; as the ground dries out it will tend to crack just above the truffle giving the clue as to where to dig. Finally the truffler can get clues from swarms of truffle flies. The trick is to get to the truffle before they do. Every truffle hunter has a favour- ite tool for extracting truffles, usually some kind of small rake or cultivator.

Truffle hunters in North America do not have this wealth of prac- tical experience. They tend to rely on their knowledge of mycorrhizal relationships combined with the time-honoured method of grovelling about in the dirt. This meets with limited success. On a recent truf- fle hunting outing in the Gatineau hills, four avid hunters failed to turn up one specimen. However, one of the party had found a false truffle the day before in a Quebec City park. It was perched on the branch of a tree: He grabbed it and rushed it back to the lab for id- entification without a thought for the squirrel who would return later to retrieve her gourmet cache.