398 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



doors, it was filled with plants taken from the same lot as those 

 set in the open. The beds in which they were planted were solid, 

 that is, the prepared soil rested upon the natural surface of the 

 ground, forming a layer from 12 to 15 inches ia depth. During 

 the preceding winter those beds had served for growing lettuce, 

 and they had consequently been well enriched with stable manure, 

 a fertilizer which is especially effective in the production of rapid 

 growth. In July, when the plants grown under glass were com- 

 pared with those planted in the open ground, an astonishing differ- 

 ence could be observed. Those set in the house were fully twice as 

 large as the others ; the leaves were larger and the stems thicker 

 than those generally found in the gardens of this latitude, and the 

 abundance of healthy foliage was ample proof that tJie plants were 

 subjected to conditions extremely favorable to their growth. 



Another interesting point was soon noticed. Although the plants 

 were blossoming quite freely, still comparatively little fruit had set, 

 and it appeared as if the entire energies of the plants had been 

 directed towards the production of foliage at the expense of the 

 fruit. This condition may perhaps be ascribed to two causes. 

 Extreme activity of the vegetative functions of plants is frequently 

 carried on at the expense of fruit production ; this fact is commonly 

 illustrated by young fruit trees, which blossom sometimes several 

 years before they set fruit. The growth of the egg-plants mentioned 

 above was sufficiently luxuriant to suggest the possibility of its 

 having some effect upon the fruiting powers of the plants. The 

 second and perhaps most probable cause of this unsatisfactory fruit- 

 ing may have been imperfect pollination. Insects, and especially 

 bees, were not working so freely in the house as outside, and later 

 experience has shown very clearly that in order to get a satisfactory 

 crop from eggplants grown under glass thorough pollination must be 

 practiced. The foliage was so dense that the flowers were for the 

 most part hidden. In such a position they were necessarily sur- 

 rounded by a comparatively damp atmosphere, especially when 

 borne upon branches that were near the surface of the soil, and this 

 would still further tend to interfere with the free transfer of pollen 

 by any natural agencies. Under such conditions a profitable yield 

 could scarcely be expected ; yet when carefully observed the plants 

 proved to be so full of suggestions regarding the proper methods of 

 treating them that they should have repaid the time given to their 

 culture by a plentiful harvest of ideas, if not of fruits. 



