THE EARTHWORM. 



mal, its increase is fully commensurate to its con- 

 sumption, as if ordained the appointed food of all ; 

 and Reaumur computes, though from what data it 

 is difficult to conjecture, that the number of worms 

 lodged in the bosom of the earth exceeds that of the 

 grains of all kinds of corn collected by man. 



Worms, generally speaking, are tender creatures, 

 and water remaining over their haunts for a few 

 days drowns them ; they easily become frozen, when 

 a mortification commences at some part, which gra- 

 dually consumes the whole substance, and we find 

 them on the surface a mucilaginous mass: and their 

 retiring deeper in the soil is no bad indication of 

 approaching cold weather; but no sooner is the 

 frost out of the earth, than they approach the sur- 

 face to feed on decayed vegetable matter. Greatly 

 beneficial as these creatures are, by drawing leaves 

 and decayed matters into the earth, where their 

 dissolution is accomplished, yet they are sad tor- 

 mentors to us gardeners, and occasion the loss of 

 more young plants than even the slug, by drawing 

 in the leaf, which throws out the root ; so that in 

 the morning we find our nursling inverted. It is 

 the same propensity, or ordination, for removing de- 

 cayed matters that influences them in these actions ; 

 as they are the faded leaves that are seized by them, 

 such as newly removed plants present before the 

 root draws nutriment from the earth. Even stones 

 of some magnitude are at times drawn over their 



