48 HARNESSING THE EARTHWORM 



them make such wonderful growth as 16 to 1. I have also grown 

 petunias in boxes, in such size and profusion as to be unbelievable 

 to one who never had a demonstration of the earthworm's fertiliz- 

 ing and cultivating ability. Petunias in soil of identical fertility, 

 with the aid of hundreds of earthworms burrowing about their 

 roots, produced leaves 1^ to 1J4 inches wide by 3 inches long, 

 while those in the boxes without worms were yet j inch wide 

 by 1 to \% inches long; and the worm- fertilized plants were 

 several times as tall as the others. 



In a full-column article entitled "Earthworms in Role of 

 Great Benefactors of the Human Race," Mr. W. A. Anderson, 

 Editor of the S*outh Pasadena Review, reported a number of 

 growth experiments by the author.* One of the experiments re- 

 ported on was this: We planted three boxes of lawn grass (poa 

 trivialis}. One box of good native soil as control; one box of 

 identical soil, but with earthworms added ; one box of pure earth- 

 worm castings. After germination and sixty days' growth, the 

 grass was harvested and the results carefully compared. All 

 boxes produced good crops of grass. The box of native soil, with 

 earthworms added, yielded 271 percent more than the control box 

 without worms. The box of earthworm castings yielded 463 per- 

 cent more than the control box without earthworms. 



While we could give an endless array of reports similar to 

 the above, we feel that the foregoing is amply sufficient to call 

 attention to the fact that the earthworms not only produce a great 

 volume of topsoil, but they produce soil of unsurpassed fertility. 



SUBSOIL: ITS TRANSLOCATION AND 

 MIXING BY EARTHWORMS 



On the subject of plant food in subsoil, we quote from Pro- 

 ductive Soils: The Fundamentals of Successful S<oil Management 

 and Profitable Crop Management^, by Wilbur Walter Weir 



'South Pasadena (California) Reriew, April 12, 1940. 

 fPages 71 and 72 



