To James Torbitt   20 March 1880

Down,

March 20, 1880.

My dear Sir

I have received your letter of the 18th and all the documents. All the papers shall in a week or so be carefully returned to you.1

I have sent my letter of 5 folio pages. (giving an abstract of your results and of my reasons for thinking favourably of your plan) to be copied, and it shall then be sent to Mr. Caird to be shown to those who are inclined to aid your work, and afterwards to Mr. Farrer who has gone with my niece for 6 weeks to Rome.2

I can easily add to the copy a few words about the Testimonials just received. Also if I can hear in time, about the cost of your experiments; I have said at present nearly £1000 from the commencement.3

The potatoes received: they seem very fine, but I am no judge. I have too much work in hand to undertake growing them. I will however show them to my Gardener,4 but nothing really succeeds without the master’s eye, and I have no strength to undertake anything new.

I trust I shall give no more trouble. | My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Copy

1
Torbitt’s letter has not been found, but for the copied page sent with it, see the enclosure to the letter from James Torbitt, [18 March 1880]. CD acknowledged receipt of the end of Torbitt’s manuscript in his letter of 17 March [1880]. Torbitt’s manuscript and documents were returned to him; see letter to James Torbitt, 28 March 1880.
2
CD had written a statement in support of Torbitt’s experiments to develop blight-resistant potato varieties using the report and testimonials that Torbitt had sent him; see letter to James Caird, 24 March 1880. James Caird and Thomas Henry Farrer had been raising money for Torbitt’s research and CD had promised them copies of the statement (draft letter to T. H. Farrer, 9 March 1880). Farrer had married CD’s niece Katherine Euphemia Farrer in 1873.
3
In his letter of 17 March [1880], CD had asked Torbitt about testimonials he could quote from and how much Torbitt’s potato experiments had cost him.
4
CD’s new gardener was William Duguid.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12539,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12539