70 THE CONNECTICUT P0M0L0GICAL SOCIETY. 



the ground must be plowed, but, as I said before, I do not 

 believe in plowing too close up. 



Question : What was your method of cultivation 

 around those Mcintosh trees? 



Mr. Knapp: Well, those Mcintosh trees, on which 

 I raised those prize apples, stand in a favorable place, on 

 better soil than some of my other trees. They stand in a 

 little valley. My land has got a number of little knolls 

 and rises of the ground in it, and they stand in a sort of a 

 little valley, where they are shielded from the winds and 

 cold, to some extent. I spread about them a good deal 

 of fertilizer, and ashes, to help them along. The hens 

 run around there, scratch and dig. The ground is full of 

 "fish-worms," and they work around underneath, so that 

 under some of these trees there is not much grass grow- 

 ing. 



Question: What sort of soil is it? Is it clay or 

 sandy soil? 



Mr. Knapp : Well, it is what you might call a clayey 

 loam. It is very uneven ground. My orchard is not set 

 out as perhaps some of you imagine. You dig a hole for 

 one tree here, and go along and dig another. Some of the 

 soil is several feet deep, good yellow clay subsoil, and 

 then you go along a little ways further, and it is darker. 

 It changes in color as you go up toward the top of these 

 elevations or knolls. You may have got the idea that 

 my orchard is a large expanse of fine sloping trees, all in 

 perfect alignment, but that it not so. Some of the trees 

 were set before I had the place. Some of them had been 

 set out in a disorderly way, some of them are too thick 

 together, and some have plenty of room. So you can see 

 as to the matter of being in perfect order, that is the case. 



I have done the best I could with it, and, on the 

 whole, my orchard looks pretty well. Some of those who 

 have visited the orchard — and they have come there from 



