Journal of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India January to December 1872 Correspondence and Selections

Crop the fruit at the proper season that is when the flower has fallen off and the capsule assumes a dark colour ; dry the fruit in the sun in order to extract the seed with more facility and to free it at the same time from any humidity which in this state of the seed might prove very pernicious ; and lastly extract the seed from the capsule and place it in jars or other convenient receptacle [...] It is now of the first importance to raise a sort of bank on either side of the plants one on the side where the sun rises and the other on the opposite side with the object of preventing the plants from suffering the whole day from the heat of the sun which would otherwise be sensibly felt. [...] The operation of separating them from the stalk is thus effected: grasping the leaf by the stalk-end and holding it with the three principal fingers of the right hand the stalk of the plant is suppored in the left and a slight effort being made with this hand below where the leaf joins the stalk tl*i leaf is removed clean away witout tearing away any portion o£ the stalk. [...] The late leaves are ordinarily those at the bottom of the plant the delay in arriving at maturity being the result of their not having been under the immediate influence of the sun like the others. [...] The third and last source is the sun which burns up the leaves when through the carelessness of the planter they are placed close to the doors of the curing room or kept outside the houses.