EGGPLANT. 53 
These pieces are then mashed or crushed in a barrel, a 
wooden pounder being used for the purpose; or if at 
hand, a wine press or a cider mill will answer for crush- 
ing. 
Fermentation is not permitted with eggplant, as it 
will make seed harder to clean and also causes seed to 
be darker in color. In fact, it is considered better not 
to allow.the pulp to stand longer than three hours be- 
fore cleaning. One grower whose annual crop amounts 
to several thousand pounds crushes the fruit by horse- 
power, in a large mill which is fixed not quite breast- 
high on the edge of a large wooden platform. The 
crushed pulp drops from the mill on to this platform, 
from which it is loaded on wagons and hauled to a 
creek for washing. He does not pare the fruit or cut 
it into pieces, but dumps the eggs whole into the 
hopper of the mill, the stem ends having previously 
been cut off in the field at time of gathering. 
Washing and Cleaning.—This is done by using 
sieves in a tub ora barrel of water. The pulp is poured 
on a wide-meshed sieve at first. By working the sieve 
about in the water, it causes seed to separate from the 
pulp and pass through the sieve to the bottom of the 
vessel used. The water and floating pulp are then 
poured off, seed is taken out and washed again in clear 
water, this time using a finer-meshed sieve to screen 
out seed from the remaining pulp. If this does not 
render seed thoroughly clean, washing is repeated. 
The large grower mentioned above does his washing 
in a stream which runs by his farm. He uses a box 
screen, which is 4 feet long, 24 feet wide, 18 inches 
deep. It has long handles at each end. The screen 
has a mesh of four to the inch. This screen box fits 
into an outside box made about 15 inches deeper, the 
