130 UTILITY AND DESTRUCTION OF REPTILES. 
long ago made good their title to the respect and gratitude of 
the farmer as well as of the angler. Their utility has been 
pointed out in many scientific as well as in many agricultural 
treatises. The following extract from an essay on this subject 
will answer my present purpose : 
“ Wornis are great assistants to the drainer, and valuable aids 
to the farmer in keeping up the fertility of the soil. They love 
moist, but not wet soils; they will bore down to, but not into 
water; they multiply rapidly on land after drainage, and prefer 
a deeply-dried soil. On examining part of a field which had 
been deeply drained, after long-previous shallow drainage, it 
was found that the worms had greatly increased in number, 
and that their bores descended quite to the level of the pipes. 
Many worm-bores were large enough to receive the little finger. 
A piece of land near the sea in Lincolnshire, over which the 
sea had broken and killed all the worms, remained sterile until 
the worms again inhabited it. A piece of pasture land, in 
which worms were in such numbers that it was thought their 
casts interfered too much with its produce, was rolled at night 
in order to destroy the worms. The result was, that the fertility 
of the field greatly declined, nor was it restored until they had 
recruited their numbers, which was aided by collecting and 
transporting multitudes of worms from the fields. 
“The great depth into which worms will bore, and from 
which they push up fine fertile soil, and cast it on the surface, 
have been well shown by the fact that in afew years they 
have actually elevated the surface of fields by a large layer of 
rich mould, several inches thick, thus affording nourishment, to 
the roots of grasses, and increasing the productiveness of the 
soil.” 
It should be added that the writer quoted, and all others who 
haye discussed the subject, have, so far as I know, overlooked 
one very important element in the fertilization produced by 
earthworms. I refer to the enrichment of the soil by their 
excreta during life, and by the decomposition of their remains 
when they die. The manure thus furnished is as valuable as 
