From T. H. Farrer   28 February 1878

Board of Trade, | Whitehall Gardens. | S.W.

28.2.78

My dear Mr Darwin

Caird takes it up warmly. He will see the Agricultural Society people.1 They have recently taken up the carrying on of Lawes experiments on a piece of land very liberally devoted to this purpose by the Duke of Bedford; and Caird thinks they will very likely take up this potato experiment if they think it promising—2 Any further information and any hints from you will be very welcome.

You shall hear anything further Caird tells me

Ever yours sincerely | T H Farrer

If this goes on it will be much better than Government

1
Farrer was responding to CD’s request on behalf of James Torbitt to obtain government funding for continued experimental work to develop a potato variety resistant to blight; see letter to James Torbitt, 26 February 1878. James Caird was a prominent member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (ODNB).
2
John Bennet Lawes had been carrying out agricultural experiments at Rothamsted Agricultural Station; see Correspondence vol. 23, letter from J. H. Gilbert, 24 July 1875. The duke of Bedford was Hastings Russell; with Lawes, he set up the Woburn experimental station at Husborne Crawley, Bedfordshire, in 1876 (see E. J. Russell and Voelcker 1936).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11384,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11384