Definition of "earth-ball" []

• The truffle, Tuber cibarium, which grows in the soil, and produces its spores within tuber-like bodies. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Ladies did not disdain those pagan ironed times of the firs; city (called after the ugliest Danadune) when a frond was a friend inneed to carry, as earwigs do their dead, their soil to the earth-ball where indeeth we shall calm decline, our legacy unknown."
• "The upper part of the earth-ball should be level or slightly deeper than the edge of the hole."
• "Be sure not to break the earth-ball when setting the seedling into the planting hole."