Dill
Grown as fennel which it greatly resembles, both being well known herbs used for flavoring pickles, and both being of unsurpassed hardiness.—(Mich. E. S. 20.)
Egg Plant
This delicious vegetable is not so much cultivated in our gardens as it should be. This has arisen largely from the difficulty of getting the plants from seed in the open ground. If you have no greenhouse, hotbed, nor frame, it will be best to buy the plants at setting-time from some one who grows them early in pots. Plants pulled from a bed are seldom worth planting, as the egg plant is slow to recover from a serious check.
Kind of Soil.—A sandy loam will be found excellent soil; this should be well drained and have a moist subsoil. Land that has been drained, if all other conditions are proper, will make an excellent field. This plant is a deep feeder, so that the land should be plowed as deeply as possible. A new field should not be taken, while one might succeed, the chances are not so good as on an old and well-tried piece of land. Be sure that all rubbish and matter that could interfere with cultivation has been removed. Fertilize the field broadcast; there is little or no danger of the plants failing to get the food if it is in the soil. The best way is to apply the fertilizer just before plowing the field, and then apply a smaller amount where the plants are to stand; work the fertilizer in well a week or two before setting out. Lay the land off into rows four feet apart, and set the plants three or four feet apart in the row. At convenient distances a row may be skipped to make a road to gather the crop. After the crop has been planted there is little or no use for a hoe; the plow can and ought to do the work. No weeds should be allowed to show more than the seed leaves, and the ground should be kept mellow enough to let a person sink nearly to the ankles in dry times. When the fertilizer has been applied properly the roots will seek the deeper soil, and the ordinary horse cultivator will not reach them at all. Eggplant raising pays best under high cultivation. By replenishing the fertilizer, plants may be kept in bearing until frost kills them in the fall, but it will be found more profitable to renew the field, if a summer or fall crop is desired.—(U. Id. E. S. 10; N. C. E. S. 132; Fla. E. S. 31; F. B. 255; Iowa E. S. 47.)