To L. J. Jones   6 November 1881

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)

Nov. 6th. 1881

Dear Sir

Pray excuse me for troubling you with a few lines to explain how I fell into the horrid blunder about the amount of ejected earth per acre.1 I find in my notes a calculation on the assumption that the worms worked during 45 days & a second calculation on their having worked for only 40 days, & I concluded this latter period was probably more correct as the drought had lasted 2 or 3 weeks than 45 days, but forgot to alter the number of days.

Once again thanking you & begging you to excuse me for troubling you, I remain, Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

P.S. | One of my sons, who is trustworthy, finds the relation between the weight for square yard & for acre correct, as I have given it.—2

Jones had pointed out a mistake in Earthworms, p. 165. See letter from L. J. Jones, 1 November [1881], and letter to L. J. Jones, 2 November 1881 and n. 2.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway …S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.5 as … weeks] interl
3.2 for acre] ‘for’ interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13462,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13462