Rural School Leaflet 



1165 



In plugging the mouth of its burrow the earthworm shows much intelli- 

 gence. When it draws in a triangular leaf it usually seizes the leaf by the 

 apex, never drawing it in by the petiole unless the base is narrower than 

 the apex. When drawing in pine needles it always takes hold of the base, 

 where the needles are jointed. 



It is as an agriculturist that we are chiefly interested in the earthworm. 

 Into the earth, sometimes as far as seven or eight feet but usually for 

 twelve to eighteen inches, goes this little tiller of the soil, bringing to the 

 surface the subsoil. The worm breaks up hard soil by grinding it in a 

 gizzard stocked with grains of sand or fine gravel, which act like millstones. 

 The soil that passes through the earthworm's body is thus of a much finer 

 texture than we can produce by raking or harrowing, and to it has also 

 been added lime from the creature's body. Earthworms plant seeds 

 by covering those that lie on the ground with soil from below the surface, 

 and they further benefit growing plants by keeping the soil fine and 

 granular about the roots. Darwin has estimated that in the garden 

 soil in England there are as many as fifty thousand earthworms in an acre, 

 and that the whole superficial layer of vegetable mold passes through their 

 bodies in the course of every few years at the rate of eighteen tons per 

 acre yearly. 



This agricultural work of the earthworm has been going on for ages. 

 Rocks have been undermined and the aspect of the landscape has been 

 greatly changed. Several Roman villas in England owe their preservation 

 to this little creature. 



The number of segments of its body varies with the age of the earthworm. 

 When the worm is fully grown there is a thick, whitish ring near the end. 



The laying of the earthworm's eggs is an interesting performance. 

 A sac-like ring is formed about the body in the front, near the whitish 

 ring just mentioned. This little girdle 

 is gradually worked forward, and as it 

 goes over the head the sac ends snap 

 together enclosing the eggs. These cap- 

 sules, yellow brown, shaped like a foot- 

 ball, and about the size of a grain of 

 wheat, may be found in the summer in or 

 about manure piles and under stones. 



The earthworm 



LESSON FOR THE PUPILS 



Method. — The pupils should be im- 

 pressed with the fact that the earthworm is a creature of the soil and is 

 of much economic importance. It is well to have a terrarium in the 

 schoolroom filled with damp earth. Scatter grass or leaves on top of the 



