VEGETABLES — DESCRIPTION AND CULTURE. 229 



manured with half decayed leaves, well dug in. To have 

 them early, sow in a hot-bed, or in a cold frame under 

 glass, the latter part of February, or early in March, The 

 rows may be six or eight inches apart, made shallow and 

 the earth pressed upon the seed. Keep the sash carefully 

 closed until the plants are up, and then give air in warm 

 days. They succeed best with a small frame to them- 

 selves, as they like a higher heat than is desirable for 

 other plants. As very few plants are required, they may 

 be planted in a small box without bottom, placed on the 

 ordinary hot-bed and covered with a square of glass. Prick 

 them out, when two inches high, into small pots, and after- 

 wards transfer them to larger ones, as directed for the 

 tomato. 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 may never fully recover. 



The plants, when young, are often destroyed in a day 

 or two by a minute flea. Keep them closely covered un- 

 til well out of the seed-leaf, and, if attacked, sprinkle them 

 with a solution of aloes or quassia, and dust them with 

 lime and sulphur. 



It is hardly worth while to sow the seed in the open 

 ground, as they would be so late in coming into use. 

 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 which plant out the egg 

 plants two feet apart in the row. Water abundantly un- 

 til 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 pro- 

 lific 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 



