74 Field- Labourers 



afford much entertainment and information at the 

 same time, and would open a large and new field in 

 natural history/ ' Vegetation would proceed but lamely 

 without it, so great are its services in boring, per- 

 forating, and loosening the soil, and rendering it 

 pervious to rains and the fibres of plants, by drawing 

 straws and stalks of leaves and twigs into it, and, most 

 of all, by throwing up such infinite numbers of lumps 

 of earth, which is a fine manure for grain and grass.' 



Gardeners and farmers hated the worm in his day, 

 as the former at least do still ; but he remarks that 

 they would find ' the earth without worms would soon 

 become cold, hard-bound, and void of fermentation, 

 and consequently sterile.' 



The earthworm is an animal possessed apparently 

 of more than the traditional nine lives, and endowed 

 with a wonderful power of adapting itself to the most 

 diverse and most adverse circumstances. Bodily injury 

 affects it but little, so far as life is concerned. One 

 worm is said to have been beheaded eight times in 

 succession, and to have perseveringly grown a new 

 head each time ; another was cut into fourteen pieces, 

 thirteen of which became perfect worms, while only 

 one died. 



Earthworms closely similar in appearance to those 

 which we know in England are found in soils of the 

 most various kinds and in almost all parts of the world. 

 The English species is extremely plentiful on commons 

 and chalk downs, where the soil is poor and the grass 

 short and thin, and it is almost equally abundant in 

 some of the London parks, where the soil is rich. 

 But their numbers may vary in different parts even 

 of the same field, showing that they have their pre- 



