To James Torbitt   9 May 1880

Down,

May 9, 1880.

My dear Sir

If I were a minister of the Crown I should think it my duty to adopt some such plan as that which you suggest. But as far as I can see political men care only about their party quarrels, and I could not ask Mr. Farrer to undertake such a task as to interest the Government in your scheme.1 He has often remarked to me on the extreme difficulty of getting anything new undertaken. I should think your best chance would be through Mr. Forster, who has I believe unbounded energy;2 but I would suggest that you should simplify your scheme. You could state if you thought fit that I had aided you, and got others including Mr. Farrer and Mr. Caird to aid you in your valuable labours.3 I think that this would influence Mr. Forster. I doubt whether the Agricult. Socs in England would take any trouble about growing your vars. Mr. Carruthers reported to the R. Agricult Soc., to which he is Botanist, that in his opinion your attempt to raise a fungus-proof var. was hopeless.4 I am sure that you will believe that I regret that I cannot offer any assistance in urging the Government to take an active share in your work.

Believe me, my dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin.

1
CD had asked Thomas Henry Farrer to try to get government support for Torbitt’s experiments to develop blight-resistant potatoes (see letter to James Torbitt, 30 March 1880). Torbitt had sent CD a report on the experiments he proposed to make (see letter to James Torbitt, 20 March 1880). Torbitt’s report has not been found, but his plans for raising blight-resistant potatoes were outlined by CD in the enclosure to his letter to James Caird, 24 March 1880.
2
William Edward Forster was chief secretary for Ireland.
3
James Caird had collected subscriptions to enable Torbitt to continue his experiments (letter to T. H. Farrer, 9 March 1880).
4
William Carruthers was botanist to the Royal Agricultural Society (R. Desmond 1994). Potato blight was caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans. Carruthers had long dismissed Torbitt’s work, claiming that disease would affect potato plants regardless of the method used for the tuber’s reproduction (DeArce 2008, p. 211).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12602,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12602