PRESIDENT S AI)I>I!F,SS. XI 



acid assists in breaking them up into still smaller particles, 

 so that they are rendered available for the food of 

 plants. During mild winter months, on the surface of lawns 

 and all over plots of ground left undug for any length 

 of time, evidences of the earth-worms' industry are always 

 to be found by those who look for them. These worm-casts 

 are in most soils surprisingly large in amount ; they are 

 often one-fifth of an inch in thickness in a single year (0-2in.) 

 This large quantity of soil, pulverised to the minutest degree, 

 is so placed by worms as to be exposed to the action of air, 

 whence it absorbs oxygen, an important article of food 

 for plants. The worms are continually consuming a good deal 

 of decaying vegetable matter, and mixing it with the soil taken 

 into their bodies, fi'om which they probably derive some nutriment. 

 But the advantage of their labours to themselves is as nothing 

 compared with the benefits they confer on us. They are the chief 

 manufactm'ers of the rich treasures of mould which form an 

 important part of the fields and gardens of this and other 

 countries. They are unceasingly burrowing beneath the surface, 

 and opening channels through which air and moisture find their 

 way into the soil, and thus carrying on the cultivation of the 

 soil in an unseen and too generally unrecognised manner, 

 supplementing the work of the ploughman and often sui-passing 

 the effects of our most approved appliances. Every gardener 

 knows the value of fine soil for a seed bed of any 

 kind, and where he is about to sow seeds he usually 

 takes immense pains to get the soil on the surface as fine as 

 possible, so thai the conditions of warmth and moisture may be 

 favourable for germination. Mr. Darwin's researches show us 

 that earth-worms are unceasingly pulverising the surface soil 

 in a manner we can but feebly imitate, and on a scale so 

 large and important to the interests of mankind that one rises 

 from the perusal of this book with the firm conviction that 

 this much-despised creature, which is ruthlessly destroyed 

 by most people whenever opportunity offers, is really one 

 of the most useful of living things. I will not weary you 



