I'ACTS ADOUT Win. I. KNOWN' ANIMALS. H »7 



"Orip:in of Sptx-io.<," lias recently ;i,ivtii us a treatise on the 

 earth-worni. wherein its iiuftortant work is admirably set 

 forth. Worms are in reality the uri^inal tillers of the soil, 

 and the present mold-hnilders of the world. Darwin i)roves 

 the correctness of the position he maintained some forty-five 

 Years ajjo in a jiaper read l)efore the Royal Geo<>rai)hical 

 Society of London, viz: that "the farmer is only imitating 

 in a clumsy manner, without being able to bury the ])eb])les 

 or sift the line from the coarse soil, the work which nature 

 is daily performing by the agency of the earth-worm." By 

 their castings they liave been known to raise a field 13 inches 

 in 80 years, and they have not only helped materially in 

 burying small superincumbent objects; but have, according 

 to Darwin, played an important part in the burial of ancient 

 buildings. The celebrated seedsman, Mr. J. J. II. Gregory, 

 of Marblehead, Mass., carefully collected the castings daily 

 for one season over a given area, and they measured nearly 

 a quart to the s(|Uare foot, or enough to raise the surface ot 

 the land half an inch. lie also, by exiicrimcnt, .'^hows that 

 an acre of land may contain six tons of worms; Yon Ilen- 

 sen estimated 53,7(37 worms to the acre, and that they would 

 make 37 jtounds of mold every 'i-l hours. As agents in aid- 

 ing denudation they are also powerful. 



Who, remembering the gigantic work })erformed by the 

 coral polyp in transforming, so to speak, ocean into land — 

 the important part it has played in the configuration of con- 

 tinents, can doubt the wonderful services of the earth-worm 

 as Darwin has so forcibly i)resented them ? In some respects 

 he has, perhaps, underrated the results of fro.'^t and of atmos- 

 l>heric dust and dej)osit, in burying objects and increasing 

 superficial soil, and 1 am inclined to think that the value of 

 worms from the agricultin-al standpoint is overrated, since 

 they are a well recogni/,e<l nuisance in lawns and pots,* tend 

 to deatlen the soil where excessive, and do not occur in the 

 very .-^oils that most need the digested humus or decompos- 

 ing vegetation which they cast up; but allowing this, the 



* Grated horse-chestnut or lime mixed in the soil will relieve llic same of \\ orm\ 



