To James Torbitt   10 March 1880

Down,

March 10, 1880.

My dear Sir

Your letter of the 8th received.1 I enclose cheque for £25 and shall certainly be able to send you £110 and hope £150. But I shall not know the amount with certainty until I have written a statement for Mr. Caird, showing why I think favorably of your scheme, what you have done, &c. I am now pledged in honour to do this.2 The letter to the Times can be kept in reserve till next year.3 Be so kind as to answer as soon as ever your work permits you all my queries; especially which year you commenced work and what you have expended. I will then write a statement, making it as brief as possible, and have copies sent to Messrs. Farrer,4 Caird &c.

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin.

Copy

1
The letter from Torbitt has not been found.
2
For the latest funds that CD had raised for Torbitt to continue his research developing blight-resistant potatoes and for James Caird’s reservations about sending the money to Torbitt, see the draft letter to T. H. Farrer, 9 March 1880 and n. 2.
4
For CD’s earlier queries to Torbitt, see the letter to James Torbitt, 6 March [1880]. Thomas Henry Farrer.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12530,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12530