1913 . 
THE RURAE NEW-YORKER 
286 
EARLY EGGPLANTS ON A 
SOUTH JERSEY FARM. 
A Profitable Crop. —The crop 
that gave us the largest net re¬ 
turns per acre last year was the 
eggplant. We had in a little over 
two acres, and the receipts, clear 
of freight and commission, were 
$903.16, or $436.30 per acre. Egg¬ 
plants are grown to a greater or 
less extent on many South Jersey 
truck farms, and it has been our 
practice to grow them in a small 
way, each year, along with our 
larger plantings of tomatoes and 
peppers. Eggplants work in nicely 
along with tomatoes and peppers, 
and one year with another we 
find them quite profitable, but they 
have never before done quite so 
well as this year. Conditions were 
just right for a full crop, and the 
price was somewhat above that of 
average seasons. Our yield from 
the 2.07 acres was 2,409 ^-bushel 
baskets, or 1,163 baskets to the 
acre. A well-filled basket holds 
18 to 20 medium-sized fruits. 
Allowing 18 fruits to the basket, 
which I think is well within the 
limit, there were 43,362 marketable 
eggplants from the 2.07 acres. 
We set the plants 4feet apart 
each way in the field, and the total 
number of plants on that plot was 
4,450. With the above figures as 
a basis it will be seen that each 
plant gave an average yield for 
the season of better than _nine 
fruits each. This may seem like 
a large yield to those who grow 
eggplants on heavy soils, and 
think they are doing well to get 
one or two marketable fruits per 
plant, but for their benefit will 
say that growers here often find 
plants that give five to 10 fruits at 
one cutting. 
Plant Requirements. — The 
eggplant needs plenty of heat, 
moisture, plant food and a soil 
that warms up early in the Spring. 
A field of rich sandy loam that 
retains moisture fairly well, with 
a southern slope or sheltered loca¬ 
tion, will be a suitable place for 
this crop. The plot we used last 
year was a rather light sand, and 
in a season of light rainfall might 
have been a trifle dry. In the 
Fall of 1911 there was a rye cover 
crop on the ground, and we 
covered this with fine town manure 
at the rate of about 12 tons per 
acre. In the Spring of 1912 we had 
some surplus manure in the barn¬ 
yard and some of this, amounting 
to about six tons more per acre, 
was spread on top of the first 
application just before all of it 
was turned under deeply with a 
three-horse plow. Because of a 
very wet Spring the plowing was 
not done until about the middle of 
April, by which time the rye was 
entirely too high, but fortunately 
it rained later, and there was no 
loss from dry weather. After 
plowing the ground was harrowed 
thoroughly with an Acme and 
marked out in checks 4 /z feet 
apart each way. We always al¬ 
low that distance for eggplants, 
and even then the rows are al¬ 
most closed by the end of the sea¬ 
son. At plant setting time a plow 
was run down the rows just as 
deep as two horses could pull it. 
thus enabling us to get the plants 
down to the manure and where 
they would not suffer much from 
lack of moisture. Plants were 
set May 11, at which time a hand¬ 
ful of 4-8-10 fertilizer was scat¬ 
tered about each hill to start them 
growing. No other fertilizer was 
given throughout the season. 
GASOLINE CULTIVATOR AT LAUNDRY WORK. Fig. 88. 
WASHING THE PIORSERADISH ROOT. Fig. 89. 
A HORSERADISH CROP IN LEAF. Fig. 90. 
THE BOY AND THE FAMILY BEEHIVE. Fig. 91. 
Clean and frequent cultivation 
was given throughout the entire 
growing period. 
General Treatment. —The first 
marketing was made July 10 and 
consisted of four baskets, which 
netted $1.10 each. The last cut¬ 
ting of two baskets was made 
October 24, and they netted 35 
cents each. Some sold in mid¬ 
season as low as 10 cents a basket. 
The entire crop was sold in the 
open market through commission 
men in Philadelphia and Chester. 
After eggplants once get started 
in the field they are quite tough 
and can stand a lot of hard 
knocks, but before they get in the 
field they need careful handling. 
However, for one already en¬ 
gaged in growing early tomatoes 
and peppers, it will not be diffi¬ 
cult to add a few eggplants. The 
profits from all three depend 
largely on their earliness, and all 
are grown with earliness as the 
prime object. In common with 
most truckers throughout this sec¬ 
tion we have a simply constructed 
hothouse covered with ordinary 
cold frame sash, and heated with 
wood stoves. In this house we 
start all of our tomato, eggplant 
and pepper plants. Last year we 
sowed our eggplant and pepper 
seed February 13, and tomato seed 
February 17. Eggplants and pep¬ 
pers are given the warmest part 
of the house, right near the stove, 
and if necessary we sometimes 
partition the house off, so as to 
give them extra heat without at 
the same time forcing the toma¬ 
toes too hard. The soil used on 
the benches for tomatoes and pep¬ 
pers is a good rich sandy loam, 
placed over two or three inches 
of fine stable manure, but where 
eggplants are sown we place a 
couple of inches of yellow sub¬ 
soil sand on the manure and sow 
the seed in this. Eggplants damp 
off very easily when small, but by 
using this yellow sand we avoid 
this to a great extent. This is 
probably due to the absence of 
damping-off fungus in that yellow 
sand. All plants are allowed to 
grow in the hothouse without 
transplanting until about March 
20 or 25; then they are trans¬ 
planted to cold frames. Last year, 
which was later than the average, 
we transplanted our tomatoes 
March 27 and 28 and eggplants 
April 2. 
Transplanting. —At transplant¬ 
ing time tomatoes always go in 
ordinary cold frames without 
heat, sometimes peppers and egg¬ 
plants do also, but the latter do 
much better if transplanted where 
some heat can be given to get 
them started. To furnish this 
heat some have ordinary hot¬ 
houses similar to the one where 
the plants were started, into which 
they transplant their eggplants 
and peppers; others have a flat 
bed covered with sash, but with 
a furnace and flue beneath made 
after the fashion of a sweet po¬ 
tato bed; others make a mild 
manure bed. All are good and 
accomplish the same thing—that 
of furnishing a little heat until 
the tender plants get well rooted. 
Previous to last year we trans¬ 
planted our eggplants in an especi¬ 
ally constructed house, but last 
Spring it was filled with water 
and so we simply shifted the sash 
from it to a manure heated frame 
made on higher ground. We grow 
something over 25,000 tomato, 
eggplant and pepper plants for 
our own use. Many growers have 
50.000 or more, while few have 
