528 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN EARTHWORMS, 



fairly be conceded that, for virgin soil, Burrawang is well provided 

 with earthworms, though of course it is possible that the particular 

 spot referred to may have been an unusually favourable one. 

 Doubtless, as is the case elsewhere, the occupation of the 

 land by man will lead to an increase in the number of worms, 

 but, as it is quite exceptional in most country districts for 

 farmers to manure the ground, the increase may be slow. A few 

 miles off at Robertson I went to look at a piece of land which was 

 being ploughed, and which the ploughman told me had been 

 cropped twice, once with corn and once with potatoes, and though 

 I found the same species of worms, I find on referring to my note- 

 book that they did not strike me as being more numerous than 

 I had seen elsewhere (I). 



I have mentioned that the worms of these four species live 

 together, by which is meant that in the same furrow, or 

 even in a few yards of it, or by digging up a few square 

 feet of soil in a good spot, one may obtain specimens of all four 



(1) As the abundance of worms either at Burrawang or Mt. Wilson at 

 the present time is not altogether, if at all attributable to the advent of 

 man, since in both localities they may be found in undoubtedly virgin soil, 

 the following facts are interesting by way of comparison. In "Nature " for 

 1884 (Vol. XXIX. pp. 213 and 406) will be found two letters in which the 

 writers say, that earthworms do not exist in the prairies of the Canadian 

 North-West, and in the United States in those of Kansas, nor in the Indian 

 Territory, Idaho, and Washington Territory, possibly in some of these 

 places, as the writers suppose, on account of the prevalence of intense cold, 

 and of prairie fires, or because the soil is more or less alkaline. On p. 503 

 in a third letter, an American writer commenting on the first, says : — " It is 

 well-known to settlers on virgin soils in this country that in the first tillage 

 of the ground they will see no earthworms. This is equally the case whether 

 they settle upon prairie land which has been swept annually by fires, or 

 upon wood land which has been cleared for cultivation, and which has never 



been burned over But, until settlement and tillage by man 



there is no trace of earthworms even in those most favourable localities 

 called " beaver meadows." At first they are found about the stable-yard, 

 then in portions of ground enriched by stable manure, garden or meadow, 

 till at length they may be found in all soils, either those cultivated or those 



pastured by domesticated animals The frontier settlers in 



Mukoka in the Canadian Dominion tell me that until a place 



has been inhabited for five years it is useless to search for the earthworm." 

 According to this writer it would appear to be introduced worms which 

 eventually become so numerous. 



