54 THE SEED-GROWER. 
handles affording a means of rest at the top of the out- 
side box. The bottom of this outside box is made of 
wire bronze, mosquito netting mesh, for water to drain 
through. To support this bronze netting strips are 
nailed across. The bottom also has legs at each corner 
for support in the water. The legs at one end are 
longer than the other two, to allow for the slope of the 
beach when standing in the water. Three men operate 
this apparatus. They stand in the water in rubber 
boots. One man at each end takes a pair of handles and 
lifts and shakes the screen, while the third man pours in 
three buckets of pulp at atime. The shaking separates 
seed from pulp, seed sinks through and falls to the bot- 
tom of the outside box. The pulp is then dumped out 
of the screen box, fresh pulp is poured in and the 
operation is repeated until the space in the outside box 
is full. Seed is then taken out, and a final cleaning is 
given with a sieve in a tub of water. 
Drying.—This is done on screens in the same man- 
ner as given for cucumbers. But it should be hastened 
as much as possible, so as to have the seeds as dry as 
can be before night; to facilitate which the work should 
be begun early in the morning of a clear, dry day. 
While drying on the screens, stir or turn the seeds over 
from time to time. 
As eggplant seed sprouts more easily than seed of any 
other vegetable, when first taken out of the fruit, it is 
sometimes lost by sprouting over night when not as dry 
as it should be. 
The large grower, whose operations of extracting and 
washing seed have been described, does not dry his seed 
out-doors. He prefers, owing to depredations by birds, 
to dry seed on the floor of a dry, airy room. He 
spreads the seed thinly, less than quarter of an inch 
