My dear Sir

I wrote at considerable length yesterday to Mr. Farrer of the Board of Trade, with several extracts from your letter together with the printed documents.¹ I said I thought it would be a national calamity if you were prevented from trying the successful varieties during a few years more and raising new varieties from them. I also said the case appeared to me a proper one for Government assistance. What Mr. Farrer will do I cannot of course tell but in a former note he said he thought Lord Sandon was the best member of the Government to consult.² I was very much pleased to see in your last letter that you thought you had been quite successful in raising a fungus-proof variety, but pray do not be too sanguine until they have been tested during two or three seasons.³

With all good wishes believe me my dear Sir | Ch. Darwin.