My dear Sir,

I have been unwell for some time and have had very little energy, but I have not neglected the work in hand: on the contrary, in view of your great interest in it, and also that of the subscribers, and of my own, I have last season grown 7,000 new varieties of the plant in place of the usual 5,000.¹

They are thrice crossed, and many hundreds of them are sound, and appear to be valuable, and of these I shall send you a specimen tomorrow.

Some of the previous year’s varieties (seedlings of 1880) were also thrice crossed and some few hundreds of them also are sound, and seem to be valuable, and of these I shall send specimen also.

And this brings me to the varieties (seedlings of 1880) which I sent you last spring in small paper bags:² such of these as were round red or round white (and they were almost all so) were all of one particular cross (a second cross) which divided itself into varieties of three types—one nondescript and valueless, one round red, and the other round white as above described. And the selected varieties of the last two types, and of which yours were part, were all of most vigorous growth, each seed producing a plant having numerous tall strong stems, broad dark green leaves, and a large crop of sound tubers: they were apparently the best I had ever grown, and as such I sent them to you. Of this cross, I planted many hundred varieties last spring, in fact a whole acre full, and excepting 37, all these varieties produced plants, having only one, two, or three, small feeble stems, with yellowish green, small curled up leaves, and no tubers of any value—in one year the seemingly best varieties became utterly worthless, and unluckily I sent some of them to you and to M^r Farrer and M^r Caird as specimens of my work.³

The cause of the change I believe to be this—some three or four years ago I sent you a few tubers of a variety, some tubers of which produced most vigorous plants, having broad dark green leaves and an immense yield of both fruit and tubers, while other tubers produced plants having narrow pale green leaves, a much smaller yield of smaller tubers, and no fruit at all; and the tubers which produced the bad plants, were to my eye indistinguishable from the tubers which produced the good plants, and you Sir, after having grown this variety wrote to me that it “seemed to be affected by some constitutional malady”.

Now I, having for the moment forgotten all about hereditary disease—I crossed some plants of this variety, and the specimens which I sent you, and the acre which I planted, are results of that cross: it seems to me to be disease in the variety, transmitted by seminal reproduction, and should you believe the matter to be worth your attention I shall be happy to send you one tuber (or the whole) of each of the 37 varieties of this cross which remain healthy, and I propose myself to plant some of each of them in order to see how they turn out.

The tubers in the small linen bag which I sent you last spring were each of a different, twice crossed variety, and from what I have seen, I hardly think any of them were of any value. I am pleased only with the thrice crossed varieties of ’80 and ’81, and curiously, with some 5 uncrossed varieties of 1875.

A large agriculturist (as well as a considerable landowner) says he has obtained, last season, at the rate of 16 tons per acre, off unreclaimed Irish bog land, the government valuation of which is less than one shilling per acre: this is a variety of of 1875 uncrossed, and I send a sackful of a ’75 variety of the same type as specimen of quality, it is stored on a loft, and exposed to the air more than it should be, but is still good.

I am about to try this government for assistance, in accordance with the resolution they have carried in the House of Commons, and shall lose no time in letting you know the result (witholding your name in the first instance, as instructed.)⁴

There is no disease here this year, of importance, either in mine or the common varieties, excepting in certain early ones which are always diseased and expected to be diseased.

I have made only a few crosses last season which are fourth crosses but in them, like all the others, I have used pollen gathered promiscuously and no doubt specific breeding should be resorted to.

Trade seems at last to be coming a little better, and I have good hope that in a few months I shall be able to return the subscribers money and with most sincere thanks.

With apologies for the awful length of this letter and with best good wishes I am | My dear Sir | most respectfully & faithfully yours | James Torbitt