152 VEGETABLE GROWING. 



transplanting them, because they fear they will be in- 

 jured in the operation ; but experience has taught us 

 that they may be removed, or re-set, when small, 

 without any disadvantage to the plant. The time to 

 sow the seed depends upon the time when the last 

 killing frost occurs in our section. 



The seed may be sown in cold frames in warm sec- 

 tions, but the plants will not come along so rapidly as 

 they would in a hot bed. They will, however, ma- 

 ture very much earlier than the Northern grown pro- 

 duct, and consequently be marketable when the prices 

 are still very good. The same precautions for hot- 

 beds should be observed for cold frames. 



USING FLOWER POTS. 



Egg-plant seedlings are somewhat sensitive about 

 having their roots disturbed, consequently some gar- 

 deners have used several sizes of flower-pots to pre- 

 vent this injury; for this operation they secure paper 

 flower-pots of various sizes, beginning usually with 

 two and one-half inch ones. These cost about $2.50 

 per thousand. The pots are filled about four- fifths 

 full of potting soil, to which has been added a liberal 

 supply of fertilizer prepared for egg-plant. Six or 

 eight seed are dropped in each one of these, and the 

 pots are then placed in the hot bed or cold frame, as 

 the gardener desires. Some plunge the pots into the 

 soil, while others do not ; the former way requires less 

 attention, but destroys the pots in one year. The seed- 

 lings grow in these pots just as though they were in 

 the hot bed, but from time to time the gardener exam- 

 ines the plants to see that they do not become pot- 

 bound, or do not send their roots through the bottom 

 of the pot. As soon as either of these occur, the 

 plants are shifted to a larger sized pot, which is usu- 

 ally a three-inch one. The increased space is filled up 



