48 



wicker work, the opening being about a quarter of an 

 inch square : under each of these are slides. This occu- 

 pies little space and is neat, and the persons using it can 

 easily remove the litter. I have used three tiers of rough 

 pine boards fixed upon upright posts, about four feet in 

 width, one above the other, with a space between of two 

 and a half feet, affording room sufficient to pass all round 

 the frame, so that I could conveniently reach any part of 

 it. In making the shelves it is well to have the lowest 

 one six inches broader than the one above it, and to make 

 the same difference in the other shelves above, so as to 

 break the fall of such worms as happen to tumble down. 

 A good form for the shelves is that adopted by Mr J. Y, 

 Tomkins of Baltimore, and which I saw in the nursery of 

 Gideon B. Smith, Esq. of that place. It is about 2 feet 

 wide, by five or six long, made of thin boards, with a piece 

 two inches wide nailed flat on the upper edge along the 

 sides and ends, with legs about a foot long in the corners. 

 The legs do not pass through the table, but leave a part of 

 the hole on the upper side for the feet of another table to 

 set in. Thus contrived, five or six of these tables are set 

 one above another, and are taken down, cleaned and 

 again set up with facility. One of these shelves will ac- 

 commodate 500 worms.* It might be as well to put old 

 newspapers on the shelves, which might be taken off 

 whenever it was necessary to clean the worms, and then 

 replaced. Thus I have done. 



* Farmers, however, who would make it profitable, should raise 

 one or two hundred thousand, and rough boards will make the 

 cheapest and most ready shelves for use on an extensive scale. 



