of Selborne 185 



them, by boring, perforating, 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 infmite numbers 

 of lumps of earth called worm-casts, which, being their 

 excrement, is a fine manure for grain and grass. "VVorms 

 probably provide new soil for hills and slopes where the 

 rain washes the earth away ; and they affect slopes, 

 probably to avoid being flooded. Gardeners and farmers 

 express their detestation of worms ; the former because 

 they render their walks unsightly, and make them much 

 work : and the latter because, as they think, worms eat 

 their green corn. But these men would find that the 

 earth without worms would soon become cold, hard- 

 bound, and void of fermentation ; and consequently 

 sterile : and besides, in favour of worms, it should be 

 hinted that green corn, plants, and flowers, are not so 

 much injured by them as by many species of coleopie7-a 

 (scarabs), and iipiil<z (long-legs), in their larva, or grub- 

 state ; and by unnoticed myriads of small shell-less snails, 

 called slugs, which silently and imperceptibly make amaz- 

 ing havoc in the field and garden.^ 



These hints we think proper to throw out in order to 

 set the inquisitive and discerning to work. 



A good monography of worms would afford much 

 entertainment and information at the same time, and 

 would open a large and new field in natural history. 

 Worms work most in the spring ; but by no means lie 

 torpid in the dead months; are out every mild night in 

 the winter, as any person may be convinced that will take 

 the pains to examine his grass-plots with a candle ; are 

 hermaphrodites, and much addicted to venery, and con- 

 sequently very prolific. 



I am, etc. 



1 Farmer Young, of Norton-farm, says tliat this spring (1777) 

 about four acres of his wheat in one field was entirely destroyed by 

 slugs, which swarmed on the blades of corn, and devoured it as fast 

 as it sprang. 



