EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT. 445 



creased vigor and fniitfulness into the offspring. It has not yet 

 been determined how long the renewed strengtli will last, and there- 

 fore it is well to secure fresh conil)inations every year. 



The many reports that have been secured from those who grew 

 eggplants for the first time lead to the opinion that the seedlings 

 are less hardy than tomatoes and other garden plants started in- 

 doors, and their failure later on in the garden seems to emphasize 

 the fact that eggplants need high feeding and abundance of moist- 

 ure and sunshine. In other words, when under the best conditions 

 they thrive almost like tropical vegetation, but in a lean soil, with 

 lack of water, they sicken and barely live as fruitless plants. The 

 plants of the Gardens could, doubtless, have been made more pro- 

 ductive by adding food and drink, but one of the objects in the 

 experiment was to study the crosses under possibl}^ only average 

 conditions. 



Another method that obtained in the Gardens was entirely- 

 against the keeping quality of the fruits produced. The plants 

 wei'e unsprayed and. the crop left to mature its seed, or at least so 

 that the fruits might be studied. In this w^ay the blights have been 

 in evidence and some sorts suffered much more than others. All 

 the dwarf sorts, with their small pear-shaped fruits, have shown 

 remarkable resistant power to the decay genns (suggesting lines 

 for future breeding), while the large-fruited sorts of the oval types 

 have rotted worst of all. The long fruits that are held from the 

 ground upon high plants are less apt to decay than the larger fruits 

 lx)me upon the soil by medium-low plants. Again, the long, 

 widely-scattered foliage of the "Pekin" type of plants lets in the 

 sun to'the fruits, and doubtless helps to keep them from decay. 



It is not any great stretch of the imagination to conceive of a 

 fruit that, while not differing gTeatly from the common sorts as to 

 the interior, shall have a skin sufficiently firm and thick to shield 

 the flesh from the microscopic enemies that work their way so 

 quickly into the present type of fruits. A more secure natural 

 cover would be welcomed by the shipper and dealer, and make it 

 possible to have the large and attractive fruits of this vegetable 

 reach the consumer in a more acceptable condition. 



