Vegetables with Edible Fruits. 197 



The seed may be sown in coldframes in warm sections, 

 but the plants will not come along so rapidly as they would 

 in a hotbed. They will, however, mature much earlier 

 than the northern-grown product, and consequently be 

 marketable when the prices are still very good. The same 

 precaution as for hotbeds should be observed for cold- 

 frames. In regions where killing frosts are not likely to 

 occur, the seed-beds should be established about the first 

 of August to have the vegetable about the first of January. 

 The treatment of a seed-bed is similar to that of a cold- 

 frame. The young plants need some screening to protect 

 them from the direct rays of the summer sun. A slat 

 screen or a covering of cheese-cloth fixed about a foot above 

 the surface of the bed will be found sufficient. 



Using /lower-pots. 



Eggplant seedlings are somewhat sensitive about having 

 their roots disturbed, consequently some gardeners have 

 used several sizes of flower-pots to prevent this injury. 

 For this operation they secure paper ones of various sizes, 

 beginning usually with two-and-one-half inch. These 

 cost about $2.50 a thousand. The pots are filled about 

 four-fifths full of potting soil, to which has been added a 

 liberal supply of fertilizer. Six or eight seeds are dropped 

 into each, and the pots are then placed in the hotbed or the 

 coldframe. Some growers plunge the pots into the soil, 

 while others do not ; the former way requires less atten- 

 tion, but destroys the pots in one year. The seedlings 

 grow in these pots just as though they were in the hotbed, 

 but from time to time the gardener should examine the 

 plants to see that they do not become pot-bound, or do not 



