262 GARDEN FARMING 



area must be kept free from weeds by the use of hand tools. In 

 some localities the plants are started early and carried in 6-inch pots 

 in greenhouses until conditions in the open are favorable. Such 

 large plants come into bearing immediately and give an early crop 

 that can usually be marketed at a good profit. 



Enemies. Young eggplants are apt to suffer severely from the 

 flea beetle, which is often troublesome on garden plants, and also 

 from the Colorado potato beetle, which seems to relish the egg- 

 plant quite as much as the potato. Bordeaux mixture is the best- 

 known remedy for the flea beetle, and Paris green or arsenate of 

 lead is the best means of destroying the potato beetle. 



Harvesting. As soon as the fruits are well developed and col- 

 ored they are marketed. The hard, woody stems are cut so as to 

 leave the calyx attached to the fruit. Some of the earliest product 

 is marketed by wrapping the fruits and shipping in splint baskets, 

 but the greater part is shipped in crates like those used for 

 strawberries or for muskmelons, holding from 32 to 60 quarts. 

 The eggplant is not highly perishable, stands shipment well, 

 and retains its form upon the market, but nevertheless it is 

 not a highly remunerative crop. 



GARLIC 



In sections of the Gulf States garlic is grown commercially, 

 but the home product forms only a small part of the total con- 

 sumption of the country. Garlic is little used by the American 

 born, but is found in all markets catering to the peoples of con- 

 tinental Europe. 



Botany. Botanically, garlic is classed as an onion. It is peren- 

 nial and differs from the common onion in that the commercial 

 part of the plant is an assemblage of bulbs called cloves instead 

 of one large bulb. The group of cloves composing the bulb is 

 covered with a thin, parchmentlike, translucent skin or pellicle. 

 The flower stalk, which is from 15 to 1 8 inches high, is similar to 

 that of the onion, and bears both seeds and bulblets in the same 

 head. The seed, which is black and angular like onion seed, is 

 seldom used for propagating the plant, the cloves and bulblets 

 giving better satisfaction. 



