64 HARNESSING THE EARTHWORM 



dition, instead of feeding on concentrated grains and mashes. 

 To do this, she would have to consume several times her own 

 weight of earth each day, assuming that her digestive organs were 

 similar to those of the earthworm. Yet that is exactly what the 

 earthworm has to do. The earthworm lives on the organic con- 

 tent of the soil, which it swallows with all that is contained 

 therein. The earthworm is so constructed as to be able to digest 

 this material, thus gaining the small amount of food necessary 

 for nutrition. Only because it is perhaps the most perfect 

 digestive organism known to the animal world is the earthworm 

 able to absorb enough food from an amount of earth equal to 

 its own weight to maintain it in a fat and active condition. Thus, 

 the statement that the earthworm swallows its own weight of 

 earth daily appears, on examination, perfectly reasonable and 

 understandable. 



We again repeat: Think of earthworms in large units of 

 hundreds, thousands, millions; for in intensive propagation and 

 use of earthworms we must deal with great numbers of them. 

 Otherwise, we cannot expect to attain results worthy of con- 

 sideration. 



