OF SELBORNE. 243 
which are almost entirely supported by them, 
worms seem to be great promoters of vegetation, 
which would proceed but lamely without them, by 
boring, perforating, and loosening the soil, and ren- 
dering it pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, 
by drawing straws, and stalks of leaves and twigs 
into it, and most of all by throwing up such infinite 
numbers of lumps of earth, called wormcasts, which, 
being their excrement, is a fine manure for grain 
and grass. Worms probably provide new soil for 
hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth 
away ; and they affect slopes, probably to avoid 
being flooded. Gardeners and farmers express 
their detestation of worms; the former because 
they render their walks unsightly, and make them 
much work, and the latter because, as they think, 
worms eat their greencorn. But these men would 
find that the earth without worms would soon be- 
come cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation, 
and consequently steril; and besides, in favour of 
worms, it should be hinted that green corn, plants, 
and flowers are not so much injured by them as by 
many species of coleoptera (scarabs) and tipule 
(long-legs), in their larva or grub state, and by un- 
noticed myriads of small shell-less snails, called 
slugs, which silently and imperceptibly make ama- 
zing havoc in the field and garden.* 
These hints we think proper to throw out, in or- 
der to set the inquisitive and discerning to work. 
A good monography of worms would afford 
* Farmer Young, of Norton farm, says this spring (1777) about 
four acres of his wheat in one field were entirely destroyed by 
slugs, which swarmed on the blades of corn, and devoured it as 
fast as it sprang. 
