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The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
CD again asks JDH to support Torbitt’s project to breed disease-resistant potatoes. He has also sought support of Farrer, Duke of Richmond, and James Caird.
T. H. Farrer has talked to James Caird. He believes Royal Agricultural Society will cultivate JT’s seeds. CD pledges £100 for JT’s own experiments.
Describes James Torbitt’s plan for producing disease-resistant potato varieties. [Letter is an earlier version of 11406.]
His attempts to obtain a Government grant for Torbitt seem hopeless.
CD is suffering from constant swimming of the head.
Thanks for letter. Comments on SBJS’s research on Palaeolithic flint tools.
Agricultural Society will not do potato experiments. Torbitt telegraphs that seeds to be sown tomorrow. Memorial with a few signatures might get grant from Government. Hooker believes plan the right one.
Has been poorly.
Comments on goose with abnormal wing.
No use in thinking about Royal Agricultural Society. William Carruthers, botanist of Society, thinks attempt hopeless. T. H. Farrer and James Caird are thinking of application to Government. Makes suggestions about experiments [on potatoes].
Forwards letter from James Caird concerning funds for potato experiments. CD will correct his letter to THF [11389] and then forward it to Hooker for his opinion.
Thanks for essays by ASW ["Experiments with turnip seeds", Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh 13 (1876–9): 25–39, and a short notice, "Experiments in singling turnips"] and Aegilops seed.
CD’s gardener says not to sow onion seeds until middle of March. Should he risk sowing them at once?
If THF and James Caird [Enclosure Commissioner] approve of enclosed letter, CD will send it to Hooker.
Has returned letter to Caird and dispatched corrected letter to Hooker [11406] [concerning potato experiments].
Sends JDH a letter he has written supporting James Torbitt’s potato trials.
T. H. Farrer and James Caird think it would be less trouble to get subscription from rich agriculturists than from Government. CD thinks it utopian to hope to raise variety of potatoes from seed; must be propagated from tubers.
The strongest argument for the existence of God is the intuitive feeling that there must have been an intelligent beginner of the universe; "but then comes the doubt and difficulty whether such intuitions are trustworthy". CD is forced to leave the problem insoluble. "No man who does his duty has anything to fear, and may hope for whatever he earnestly desires."
Sends FS some specimens of harvesting ants along with the observations of their habits made by Mary Treat. If the facts are new, he believes that Mrs Treat would be gratified by their being mentioned before the Entomological Society. [See 11422.]
Authorises publication of a Bohemian edition of Origin.
Hooker approves of Torbitt’s plan [concerning potato experiments]. Torbitt, wine and spirit merchant in Belfast, highly respectable.
CD gives his opinion on how the physiological laboratory at Kew should be equipped. It would be a pity if the laboratory were not supplied with as many good instruments as their funds could provide.