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forms of animal life imply the presence of fertilizing elements, 

 such, for example, as nitrogen; and again, it would be con- 

 trary to the economy which is evident throughout the Divine 

 plan in creation that an animal, though individually small, 

 yet in the aggregate making so vast a bulk, should perform 

 its functions and die beneath the surface of the earth and not 

 feed vegetation. If it were so in this instance, I think it 

 would be the one exception. In the experiment tried, the 

 land was previously in such high condition, that it is doubt- 

 ful if any of the commercial fertilizers would have shown any 

 effects on the crop ; perhaps for the same reason my worm 

 manure failed. 



To ascertain how often during the growing season worms 

 come to the surface, I selected a square foot of ground, near 

 the edge of a low embankment, where the soil was rather 

 dryer than that of the average of the garden. From early 

 spring until the hottest weather of summer had passed, I vis- 

 ited this every morning to collect the earthy borings that 

 the worms had deposited during the night. To my great sur- 

 prise I found by these borings, that, with but two exceptions 

 in the very hottest portion of the summer, they came to the 

 surface every night during spring and summer. The collect- 

 ed mass of borings for the season was about a quart in bulk, 

 sufficient to raise the surface of the garden if deposited all 

 over it in the same proportion half an inch in height. 



And here it may be in place to describe briefly the struc- 

 ture and habits of the angle worm. Naturalists tell us that 

 it is hatched from an egg. When developed, as we find it in 

 our gardens, it is a most simple structure, quite low in the 

 scale of animal life, appearing to be but little more than a 

 . series of connected rings with a tube running through them. 

 At one end of the tube is the mouth. If we draw our finger 

 up and down the worm, we will usually feel a degree of rough- 

 ness when drawing it up toward the head. Naturalists ex- 

 plain this by the presence of hair. These hairs are so ar- 

 ranged and inclined as to be somewhat prehensile in their 



