6o The Great World's Farm 



The poor worm cannot work in dry soil. Indeed, 

 moisture seems to be the one thing essential to it; for 

 though it can stand much bodily ill-usage, it is actually 

 killed by exposure to the dry air of a room for even a 

 single night. In hot countries, such as Bengal, therefore, 

 it can only work during the cool season, about two 

 months, after the rains; and even in the moist climate of 

 England it cannot work near the surface during the dry 

 weather of summer, any more than in hard frost. Gilbert 

 White remarked that worms worked most in spring; but 

 he added that they were by no means torpid during the 

 dead months, and were in fact out, even in winter, on 

 every niild night. 



There is, however, another and much smaller animal, 

 which, as some people think, has done much work hitherto 

 attributed to the overpraised worm. Ants have not 

 generally had the reputation of being useful to the agri- 

 culturist, however clever some of them may be as agricul- 

 turists on their own account; but in Ireland, according to 

 at least one observer, they do appear to have been most 

 useful; and if in Ireland, then why not elsewhere.'' 



However, whatever their respective merits, the ants 

 work where and when the worms cannot do so, and are 

 most useful where there are crags, or large stones, with 

 patches of sandy peat; for the hill-building ants always 

 choose rock to build upon, and gradually cover the sur- 

 face with soil. These patches are at once taken posses- 

 sion of by grass and other seeds, and so the soil is kept in 

 place. During the winter there may be a little loss by 

 wind and rain, but the greater part is held together by 

 the roots, and a patch of permanent vegetation is formed 

 where previously there was only bare stone. 



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