M MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



KELATION OF EARTH WOEMS TO HORTICULTURE. 



BY PROF. SHIPPERD, OF SPRINGFIELD. 



We are fast learning not to despise the least of the myriad forms 

 of life that teems around us since science is constantly showing how 

 some of the most lowly and apparently noxious animals or plants are of 

 the utmost value to man. 



The study of nature has revealed some wonderful correlations of 

 growth. Haeckel, for instance, has shown that certain tribes of people 

 in the Pacific islands are dependent for food, clothing and even life on 

 so insigniticent an insect as the body louse. This is the case as he 

 states it : The bread-fruit tree is the source of their food, clothing and 

 the material with which to construct their houses and boats. This tree 

 would bear no fruit, and would eventually die, were it not for the in- 

 sscts that carry the pollen from one flower to another and thus secure 

 the fertilization of the flower. Now these insects are destroyed by in- 

 sectivorous birds, and the latter are, in turn, eaten by birds of prey. 

 But the enemy of birds of prey is the body louse, and if these are 

 abundant they destroy their host, so if there are many body lice, there 

 are few birds of prey, and consequently the insectivorous birds are not 

 destroyed. This leaves a multitudinous enemy for the insects, and 

 with their destruction the trees fail of fertilization and the natives are 

 subject to starvation for lack of food. 



Although no such striking correlation is traced in the case of the 

 earth worm, it is surprising how little we have known in regard to the 

 real functions of so common an animal. It is to Charles Darwin's ob- 

 servations during the last years of his life that we owe the most of our 

 present knowledge of how great results these humble creatures can 

 accomplish. That we more readily understand how these results are 

 brought about, it will be necessary to mention the chief anatomical 

 characteristics of the earth worm. 



The animal consists of an elongated tube made up of some two 

 hundred rings or joints. The anterior, or head end, is larger and 

 blunter than the more or less flattened posterior end, and about one- 

 tliird the distance from the head end is a large swollen place called 

 ■" the saddle." The outside skin glistens with a most beautiful irides- 



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