Letter received by Banks from Thomas Andrew Knight, 11 January1795 (Series 72.100) - No. 0001

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Mr T. Aird Knight   43 letters                                           

Sir

I am encouraged to address the following Letter to you by the Opinion you were last year pleased to express of [indecipherable] of my Experiments & observations on the diseases & decay of those Varieties of the Apple & Pear which have been long in Cultivation. The disease, from whose Ravages they suffer most, is the Canker.  Its Effects are first seen in the Winter or when the sap is rising in the Spring, the Bark becoming discoloured in spots, under which the Wood in the amnion shoot is dead to the Centre, & in the older Branches to the depth of the preceeding Summer's Growth.  Previous to making any Experiments I had conversed with several Planters who entertained an Opinion that it was impossible to obtain healthy Trees of those varieties of apples which flourished in the Beginning & Middle of this Century & which now form the largest Orchards in the Country. The appearance of the young Trees I had seen grafted justified the Conclusion they had drawn but the silence of every Writer on the Subject of Planting which had come in my way, convinced me that it was a vulgar Error, & the following Experiments were undertaken to prove it so. 
                                                   
I suspected that the appearance of decay in the Trees I had seen lately grafted, arose from the diseased whole of the Grafts, & concluded, that if I took Scions or Buds from the young & healthy shoots of Trees grafted in the year preceeding, I should succeed in propagating any kinds I chose.  With this View I inserted some Cuttings of the best wood I could find in the old Trees on young stocks raised from seeds.  I again inserted Grafts & Buds from those on other young stocks, & wishing to get rid of all Connection with the old Trees, I repeated this six years, each year taking the young shoots from the Trees last grafted. The last year I tried stocks of different kin[ds] some were double grafted, others obtained from apple Trees which grew from Cuttings & others from the Seeds of each kind of Fruit afterwards inserted on them, understand[ing] that there might possibly be something more congenial to grafting a stock raised from [indecipherable].  I was sent