J. Torbitt, | Wine Merchant. | 58, North Street, | Belfast.
15 Decr 1880.
Charles Darwin Esqr. | Down.
My dear Sir,
In continuance of my last respects—1
Under date of Saturday last Mr Forster wrote me that “owing to his numerous and pressing official engagements he regrets that he is at present unable to attend to the matter of growing disease-proof potatos”2
I forward today a dozen copies of enclosed to Downing Street, and shall send you reply on receipt thereof.
Most respectfully | my dear Sir | James Torbitt
of grea⟨t⟩ importance in the opinion of Sir Joseph Hooker, Mr Caird CB and others3
RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE,4
First Lord of the Treasury, &c.
Right Hon. Sir,
A Committee of the House of Commons has recommended that the Government should now undertake the work of producing new varieties of the potato, for National purposes.5
Now, I most respectfully beg leave to state that, acting under the strong encouragement, and even pecuniary assistance, of some of the highest authorities on this subject in the Kingdom, I have been engaged on this work during the last six years, and upon a scale far larger than was ever before attempted. During each year I have grown 5,000 varieties of the plant, selected the best of those varieties which were disease-proof, and what is of vast importance, I have intercrossed—cross-bred—these best disease-proof varieties, and I have now in my possession seed cross-bred during three generations, each generation having been disease-proof. That disease-proof varieties have been obtained I can adduce ample evidence, of which I most respectfully beg leave to submit a specimen:—Captain C. R. Barton, J.P., D.L., The Waterfoot, Pettigo, County Fermanagh, grew for me last season 82 disease-proof varieties of 1879, and he reports to me that in not one of these 82 varieties is there any disease whatever.6
Under these circumstances, I would most respectfully propose that, next season, I should launch into life one hundred thousand new varieties of the plant, each single variety being endowed with vitality sufficient to gather from the air, and from the earth, millions of tons of food.
And these new varieties, during the first years of life yield enormous crops. Knight found 34 tons;7 I have found 24 tons, while the average yield of old varieties is not more perhaps than 6 tons per acre—one fourth very often rotten.
And I would estimate the advantages to be gained by growing new varieties as follows:—five to ten millions per annum saving, by suppression of the disease; twenty to thirty millions from doubled crops; and twenty to thirty millions from doubled area of cultivation.
It would mean a supply of home grown food sufficient to defy foreign competition, and at the same time maintain intact, the rental of England—and to Ireland it would mean peace.8
Praying for inquiry into the matter, | I am, most respectfully, | Right Honourable Sir, | Your most obedient servant, | JAMES TORBITT.
Belfast, 15th Dec., 1880.
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12915,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on