skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

From James Torbitt   7 June 1880

Belfast

7th. June 1880

Charles Darwin Esq. | Down.

My dear Sir,

Please to accept of my best thanks for your information regarding pollen, and for your advice, which shall be acted on.1

The work is good, but in a national point of view, it is quite too slow, and besides, I want to repay everyone as well as myself, for what has been and shall be done. I wish therefore, if you Sir, and Mr Farrer approve of it, to make the following specific propositions to the Government,2

First. for a consideration of one pound per variety, I would propose to grow during the coming season (1881) one hundred thousand thrice crossed varieties of the potato, and hand them over to the Agricultural societies of the Kingdom for distribution.

Second. I would undertake that all these varieties should be of marketable appearance, of excellent qualities, and so prolific and so free from “the disease” that, after separating all unsound tubers, they would give a larger yield, than the old varieties give, of sound and diseased tubers taken together.

Third. I would propose that the Government send a Commissioner to inspect the twice-crossed varieties now growing, when they are in bloom, and when they are being dug up, and also to see the principles of cross-breeding and selection as applied to this years seedlings, in order to judge whether it is probable I should be able to carry out last proposition.

Fourth. I would propose that, under a vote of the House of Commons, one twentieth of the money (one shilling per variety) be paid in advance, the remaining nineteen twentieths to be held in reserve, as a guarantee fund against any failures in the varieties—that is, that all varieties which might fail to conform to fore going description should not be paid for.

And should these propositions seem to be practical, perhaps Mr Farrer would speak to Mr Chamberlain on the subject?3

Curiously enough, Mr Forster’s (secretary for Ireland) father was a friend and guest of the father of the gentleman who is now growing these new crossed potatoes for us.4

I remain | my dear Sir | most respectfully & faithfully yours | James Torbitt

Footnotes

CD’s letter has not been found, but in his letter of 13 May 1880, Torbitt had asked CD whether the pollen used in crossing potatoes would live for a few days, or weeks, or whether it had to be used immediately.
CD had asked Thomas Henry Farrer, permanent secretary of the Board of Trade, to try to get government support for Torbitt’s experiments to develop blight-resistant potatoes (see letter to James Torbitt, 30 March 1880).
Joseph Chamberlain was president of the Board of Trade.
William Edward Forster was chief secretary for Ireland; he had visited Ireland with his father, William Forster, in 1846 (ODNB). The man who was growing potatoes for Torbitt, and his father, have not been identified.

Bibliography

ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Summary

Sets out specific propositions concerning his potato varieties, which he will make to the Government, if he is given CD’s and T. H. Farrer’s support.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12622
From
James Torbitt
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
Belfast
Source of text
DAR 178: 166
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12622,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12622.xml

letter