1 66 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



contains an abundance of humus and retains moisture. Manure heavily. Large 

 kinds should be set three feet apart each way. The ground should be thoroughly 

 cultivated throughout the season. We run lightly through the land with the 

 cultivator twice a week. The worst enemy of the egg-plant is the Potato beetle^ 

 which preferd egg-plants to potatoes. The egg-plant grows slowly, and any 

 injury to the young plant is with difficulty overcome. If the plants are seriously 

 injured when first set there will be little use in attempting to fruit the large 

 kinds. Paris green, at the rate of one pound to one hundred gallons of water, 

 is destructive to the beetle. Very rarely do plants in a large plantation of the 

 late varieties all mature fruit, and such kinds as Black Pekin, New York and 

 Giant Round Purple rarely mature more than two large fruits to the plant in 

 this latitude, and often only one. Some of the early and medium varieties 

 mature from four to eight fruits. The value of any late variety depends largely 

 on the uniformity with which all the plants set and mature fruit. The New 

 York Improved possess this advantage over the old New York Purple. The 

 value of long and careful selection to this end was illustrated in our large 

 planatation of crosses last year. A large percentage of the plants were entirely 

 unfruitful, showing that a promiscuous lot of seedlings is likely to be unproduc- 

 tive, and in this case these seedlings were crosses between productive parents. 

 Breeding plants of uniform productiveness is the most important field in 

 experiments with the egg-plant now. 



The varieties are not numerous, and vary widely in habit, pubescence, 

 spininess, color of plant and fruit, size, shape and season of fruit. The larger 

 varieties are most popular in market, but some of the earlier and smaller kinds 

 are better. The white varieties find little demand in the market, and there is 

 an impression that they are unwholesome, but they possess no other fault than a 

 hardness of flesh and rind in the case of the smaller varieties. The White 

 Chinese is as good as any for table use. 



Besides a record of experiments in crossing different varieties, the Bulletin 

 contains an interesting study of the botany of the plant, by Professor Bailey. A 

 summary of the Bulletin is given as follows : 



1. Egg-plants are adapted to cultivation in the north. The requisites of 

 success in growing them are these : early starting ; warm quarters ; vigorous 

 plants ; rather late transplanting to the field ; warm, rich and rather moist soil ; 

 constant attention to Potato-beetles ; frequent cultivation. 



2. The best varieties for private use are Early Dwarf Purple, Early 

 Long Purple, White Chinese, with perhaps Black Pekin for late. 



3. The best market varieties are New York Improved and Black Pekin, 

 with perhaps Early Long Purple for the first demands. 



4. In crossing different races of egg-plants, the purple-fruited types appear 

 to be stronger in their power to transmit color to offspring than do the white- 

 fruited types ; and this appears to hold whether the purple type is used as the 

 staminate or the pistillate parent. 



