EGGPLANT 



EGGPLANT 



523 



have the fruit attain a certain size before frost, one may 

 begin to pinch out the blossoms and new growth about 

 three weeks before its usual occurrence. This same 



752. Field-grown plant of New York Improved Eggplant. 



process will be of advantage where the fruit is to be 

 brought into market at a certain time. 



Marketing. As a rule, it is better to cut the fruit 

 from the plant than to break it, especially if the work is 

 done by careless laborers. After cutting, it may be 

 placed in large market baskets and hauled to the pack- 

 ing house. For distant market, the fruits should be 

 wrapped separately in heavy brown paper. The proper 

 crate for this vegetable is the barrel crate. As this is 

 considered one of the staple vegetables, we do not gain 

 much by using fancy wrappers or packing it in fine 

 crates, hence we may use such material as may be left 

 over from shipping fancy vegetables. It also stands 

 shipment to distant markets, so that, if there is no dan- 

 ger of reduction in price, it is quite as well to ship by 

 freight as by express. 



Va rieties. There are only a few varieties offered in 

 the market. The New York Improved Spineless ma- 

 tures a little earlier than the Black Pekin. The New 

 York Purple (Fig. 752), Black Pekin, and the New 

 York Spineless are excellent for shipping purposes. 

 The above varieties are the black-fruited, and the most 

 popular in the United States, while the white-fruited 

 sorts are said to be the most popular in Europe. For 

 home use, the white-fruited varieties are preferable, but 

 as these make poor sellers in the United States, we 

 must raise the purple sorts for market. For home gar- 

 dens, the early and small Early Dwarf Purple (Fig. 

 754), is useful. It is particularly recommended for 

 northern climates. There are three main types of Egg- 

 plants, as follows (Bailey, Bull. 26, Cornell Exp. Sta.) : 

 The commoner garden varieties, Soldnum Melongena, 

 var. escuUntum, Bailey (Figs. 752, 753); the long- 

 fruited or "serpent" varieties, S. Melongena, var. ser- 

 pentlnum, Bailey; the Early Dwarf Purple type, var. 

 deprtssum, Bailey (Fig. 754). See Solanum. The so- 

 called Chinese Eggplant is a different species, for 

 which consult Solanum. 



_ Seed-groining, This is by no means a difficult opera- 

 tion, and may be done profitably in certain sections of 

 the South. For this purpose all defective or dwarfed 

 plants in the field should be cut out. By a little atten- 

 tion one will be able to know when the seeds have ma- 

 tured sufficiently for gathering. At this time the eggs 

 usually turn a lighter color or even somewhat yellow. 

 The fruit should be gathered and carried to the packing 

 house, where it may be left in a pile for 2 or 3 days, as 

 there is very little danger from rotting. When a suffi- 

 cient number have been collected the laborers may be 



pt to paring off the extra amount of meat on the out- 

 side of the seed. The remaining core may then be cut 



longitudinally into quarters or eighths, using a dull 

 knife to avoid cutting the seed. After a quantity of 

 these have been pared, they may be placed in a barrel 

 and covered with water. The barrel should not be 

 made more than two-thirds full. In a day or two fer- 

 mentation will set in and the meaty portion will 

 macerate from the seed. The seed may then be 

 separated from the meat by means of sieves, using 

 first wide-meshed ones to remove the meat and then 

 finer-meshed ones to screen out the seed from the 

 finer pulp. The seed should not be allowed to stand 

 more than 2 or 3 days in the macerating barrel, as 

 the heat evolved by fermentation and the heat of 

 the summer is liable to cause them to germinate. 

 After separating the seed from the pulp, it should be 

 dried in the shade and wrapped in secure packages. 

 By covering with tin foil or oil paper, the atmos- 

 pheric moisture will be kept out and molding pre- 

 vented. 



Diseases. The most destructive of diseases in 

 the lower South is a blight fungus which attacks the 

 plant just beneath the surface of the ground, caus- 

 ing the softer tissues at this point to rot off and the 

 plant to die. The fungus is not able to penetrate 

 the harder portion of the stem, consequently the 

 plant lingers along for weeks after being attacked. 

 A number of attempts have been made to cause this 

 blight fungus to produce fruiting organs so that it 

 could be classified, but up to the present this has 

 proved futile. In such cases as this we have no rem- 

 edy. After the plant is attacked, it is usually doomed. 

 Much, however, can be done in the way of pre- 

 venting the spread of this fungus. If all plants are 

 destroyed as soon as found to be affected, the fungus 

 cannot perfect its sclerotia, or resting state, and thus its 

 propagating is prevented. The normal home of this 



753. Long White Eggplant. 



fungus is in decaying vegetable matter. If, therefore, 

 we keep our field free from this sort of material we 

 will do much to prevent this fungus from being 

 present. Some soluble form of fungicide, as Eau Celeste 



