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To James Torbitt   18 May 1881

Down,

May 18, 1881

My dear Sir

I have the pleasure to enclose a cheque for £90 and will you be so kind as to return me the enclosed receipted, that I may hereafter show it to the subscribers.1

I am extremely sorry that you cannot get your varieties sufficiently well known to ensure a large sale.2 It is very hard on you, but I cannot doubt that they will be ultimately known and spread. You will at least have the inward satisfaction of having benefited your country. I have an extra number of letters to answer, so pray excuse brevity.

My dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin.

Copy

1
See letter from James Torbitt, 10 March 1881; Torbitt had promised to write when he needed money, but no later letter requesting funds has been found. The sum mentioned had been kept in reserve by CD following advice from Thomas Henry Farrer and James Caird (see letter to James Torbitt, [5] January 1881). The enclosure was a receipt; see letter from James Torbitt, 20 May 1881.
2
Torbitt had been experimenting to produce blight-resistant varieties of potatoes for several years but no commercially available variety had been developed by him (for his approach to the problem, see Torbitt 1876).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13165,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13165