EARLY SUMMER VEGETABLE 



!m[u> and colour of the fruit, egg-shaped to an nlntigatad pear c 

 . -ylin.lri. ,il, while in colour it ranges from white through yellow to red 

 :m.l even dark purple. None are eaten in the fresh state but are cooked 

 as vegetables. 



Cultivation The seeds are sown at the beginning of the rains 

 ;ui<l the plants put out at the distance of a foot and" a half apart. 

 They come into season in August or September and bear till the end 

 of the cold weather, certain varieties yielding till June and in Madras 

 right through summer to October. In the suburbs of Calcutta, Bombay and 

 Madras, in other words, in the vicinity of Urge towns, the brwjol is culti 

 vated as a field crop. Full accounts of cultivation have recently been 

 given by Mukerji and Roy for Bengal, and by Mollison for Bombay. The 

 latter states that the varieties with pnrpl.- fruits grow into much-branched 

 shrubs about 3 feet high. The small-fruited forms are not so tall. The 

 field varieties, he further adds, have prickles. The crop is grown eh 

 in Gujarat, especially in the gorodu or bcsar garden lands of Kaira and 

 Baroda. The crop is obtained from transplanted seedlings. The seed- 

 bed is carefully prepared in May, and the young plants are ready for 

 transplantation in six weeks or two months. The field into which they are 

 transferred is prepared as for chillies, i.e. ploughed two or three times and 

 then harrowed till a fine tilth is obtained. Before the first ploughing, a 

 dressing is given of not less than 20 tons old farm-yard manure per acre. 

 The seedlings are planted two together in rows, 2} to 3} feet apart in both 

 directions. When well established they should be earthed up, before 

 which a top-dressing of 500 Ib. of nitre or 1,000 Ib. of castor-cake placed 

 round the plants will be found very beneficial. Beds for irrigation and 

 watering are arranged as in the case of chillies (< '//<-" mn). Mollwon 

 gives a table showing the yield, cost of cultivation, and value of outturn 

 per acre under fairly high-class cultivation. The table shows that nitre 

 as a top-dressing has a remarkable effect on the crop. With a manure of 

 dried fish and nitre, at the rate of 1,451 Ib. fish and 433 Ib. nitre per acre, 

 the outturn was found to be 16,322 Ib., cost of cultivation Rs. 138-6, and 

 value of outturn Rs. 325-5 per acre. 



In Bengal, according to Mukerji, the seed is sown at the end of March 

 or early in May. The field to which the seedlings are transferred is pre- 

 pared in December or January and should be ready for planting in May. 

 The plants begin to bear in August. A variety, known as kuli brgvn, is 

 sown in September and October ; the seedlings are transplanted in October 

 or November and the plants bear from February to June. He esti- 

 mates the cost of cultivation at Rs. 60-8 per acre, and with an outturn 

 of 150 maunds per acre, worth Rs. 90, the net profit would amount to about 

 Rs. 30 per acre. Roy puts this matter more pointedly. There are two 

 principal varieties, he says (1) the winter and (2) the spring, 

 finest brinjah are known as elokeshi and mukta kethi. When grown as a 

 spring crop brinjal follows dus paddy or jute. But where the rainfall is 

 heavy it is grown in the rdbi season. 



Uses. Brinjals are much eaten by the Natives whenever procnra 

 and by the Europeans during the early summer months, when oil 

 vegetables are not available. The Natives use them (a) in curries ; 

 roasted in hot ashes and mashed with salt, onions, chilli.-*, and 1 

 or mustard-oil ; (c) cut into slices and fried in oil ; and (J) pickled while 

 young and tender with mustard-oil, chillies, salt, etc. By European* 



1027 



OLA N U M 

 i MA 



Culuva 



H ,::: ny 



- . . 



Bengal. 



Vecetabl*. 



