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character. If we watch a worm in the evening, when most 

 of its body is stretched out of its hole, we will see it sweep- 

 ing around, having the hole as a pivotal centre, until it has 

 come in contact with some bit of refuse matter, such as a 

 fallen leaf or blossom, which, sticking to the slimy exudation 

 that always covers the body of the worm, it draws into its 

 hole. The common opinion that the angle worm feeds on 

 growing plants, which leads housekeepers to take special 

 pains to kill any that may be found in their flower pots, and 

 gardeners at times to apply strong alkaline solution to kill 

 those found in their grounds, my observation and experience 

 have led me to believe is a great mistake. Their place in the 

 Divine economy appears to be the same in relation to vegeta- 

 ble matter as that of the vulture family to animal matter, — ' 

 to remove and devour dead and waste vegetable refuse. 



To test the thoroughness of their work in this direction, 

 towards the close of an afternoon in spring I spread three 

 dozen abortive pears, that had been shed from the tree at the 

 time of blooming, over a piece of ground about a foot square. 

 In the morning I found that every one of them had been re- 

 moved, and all but three or four which could be seen at the 

 mouths of the holes of the worms, had entirely disappeared. 

 A study of a worm hole is quite suggestive of the probable 

 office of the ground worm in the economy of nature. We 

 find it winding its way down through the surface into the 

 subsoil, in a line which appears to deviate from a perpendicu- 

 lar only so far as stones or hard substances render it neces- 

 sary for the little excavator to make it so. The depth of the 

 holes depends mostly on the character of the subsoil, and its 

 distance from the surface. On my grounds I found them 

 three and four feet in depth, penetrating some ways into the 

 hardpan. 



One great object in agriculture is to aerate the soil, to the 

 end that the air may so act on its elements that the}^ may be 

 converted into plant form. When we consider that the little 

 quiet worker bores its holes by the hundreds of thousands to 



