EGG PLANT, OR GUINEA SQUASH. 



267 



themselves, as they like a higher heat than is desirable 

 for other plants ; if this should be a small hot-bed, it suits 

 them all the better. When the plants are two inches high, 

 transplant into another frame under glass and put the 

 plants two inches apart, and they will grow stout and 

 more hardy for out-door planting. It is a good plan to prick 

 them out in small pots. They can thus be planted out 

 with the ball of earth entire. Do not put them out until 

 settled warm weather, for if the plants get chilled while 

 young, their growth is so checked that they never fully 

 recover. 



Plants can also be raised in the open ground, but must 

 not be sown until early in April, for these one transplant- 

 ing will be sufficient. Prepare the final bed for egg-plants 

 by making trenches three feet apart, burying in them old 

 cabbage stumps, corn stalks and other vegetable refuse, and 

 covering them with soil twelve inches deep, in Avhich plant 

 out the egg-plants two feet apart in the row. Water 

 abundantly until established. Keep the ground well hoed 

 and free from weeds, and earth up the plants a little from 

 time to time. Twelve to twenty plants will be enough. 



For Seed. — Allow one of the'largest fruits from a prolific 

 plant to ripen seed. It will keep three or four years. 



Use. — Egg-plant is used by the French in various ways 

 in soups and stews, but generally cut in thin slices, and fried 

 in batter. They are not commonly liked at first, but after 

 a few trials become very agreeable to most tastes, and are 

 esteemed a delicacy. They are fit for use when some two 

 or three inches in diameter, and continue until the seeds 

 begin to change color. They are not unwholesome, but 

 cannot be very nourishing, as they contain a very large 

 proportion of water. 



To Fry. — Out the egg-plant in slices a quarter of an 

 inch thick. To remove the acrid taste, pile the slices on 



