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rain washes the earth away ; an^ 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 coleoptera 

 (scarabs), and tipulx (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. 



* Farmer Young, of Norton-farm, says that 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. 



