KNIGHT, Thomas Andrew.

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A Treatise on the Culture of the Apple & Pear, and on the Manufacture of Cider & Perry. First edition of this landmark pomological work. Knight's new approaches to grafting, the care of seedlings, and treatment of diseases dramatically improved cultivation in England and revived foundering apple and pear breeds. The work was based on Knight's painstaking records of his experimentations with improving agriculture, which he conducted on his estate at Downton Castle near Ludlow, Herefordshire.Knight (1759-1838) was engaged in the experimental breeding of livestock and arable crops, as well as having a keen interest in the social problems of the countryside. Above all, however, he was "a horticulturalist with a detailed research programme in plant-breeding, pomology and plant physiology... He recorded facts and figures either in his memory, which was proverbial for its retentive powers, or in note-books and memoranda which he must have written in his own hand" (Journal, p. 322). In 1805 Knight was elected Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society and the following year won the Copley Medal for his papers on vegetable physiology.

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