The Plough we call a 



THE earthworm is Nature's own plough. Though the 

 plough is almost the oldest of man's inventions in use 

 to-day, it can never accomplish the work of worms, 

 for they not only plough, but they create soil as they 

 tunnel their way, by eating, through the ground, they 

 grind small the particles of rock, dragging down leaves 

 and straws and the corpses of dead beetles to enrich 

 the earth, and throwing up as castings the fine, 

 valuable mould which has passed through their bodies. 

 If there were no worms, we must suppose there would 

 be no fertile soil on the surface of the earth, and 

 therefore no vegetation. 



Gilbert White, in his great wisdom, recognised the 

 worth of the lowly worm. But in his great humbleness 

 he described his discoveries of that worth only as hints 

 which perchance might "set the inquisitive and dis- 

 cerning at work." He remarked that a good mono- 

 graph on worms would open a large and new field in 

 natural history. This he wrote in the year 1777. 

 More than a hundred years passed and then, in the 

 year 1881, one of the most inquisitive and most dis- 

 cerning of all men who ever lived Charles Darwin 

 published the monograph asked for so long before, 

 one which made the whole world see the truth of what 

 Gilbert White had proclaimed, that worms, of all 

 creatures, have played almost the most important 

 part in the history of the world. 



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