EARTHWORMS IN GENERAL FARMING 73 



pleted, the entire remaining contents of the pit were evenly spread 

 over the entire surface for "mother substance" and the new 

 compost heap was thus begun. By this method there was al- 

 ways left a very large number of breeding earthworms, with 

 vast numbers of egg capsules, to repopulate the compost pit and 

 carry on the highly important work of providing fertilizer for 

 the coming year. In this warm, highly favorable environment, 

 the worms multiplied with maximum rapidity. 



In my experiments in later years, I determined that cer- 

 tain breeds of earthworms, in a favorable environment and with 

 an abundance of food material to work on, will work ceaselessly 

 in concentrations of more than 50,000 to the cubic yard; also, 

 that 50,000 earthworms thus working will completely transform 

 one cubic yard of material per month. Thus, in nature we have 

 a constructive force which creates humus with amazing rapidity 

 when given the opportunity and, under proper control, furnishes 

 a method of utilizing every possible end-product of biological 

 activity through the very simple process of composting with 

 earthworms. 



Going back to my grandfather's farm, his regular rotation 

 of crops was corn, wheat, oats, timothy, and clover hay, in a 

 three-year cycle. One forty-acre tract was planted to timothy 

 and clover each year. A crop of hay was harvested and stored 

 for the winter, the field was used for grazing, and finally a crop 

 was turned under for green manure. In this manner, each 

 year one forty was left undisturbed by the plow for a number 

 of months, allowing the earthworm population to work and mul- 

 tiply to the maximum, while converting the organic content of 

 the earth into the finest form of humus. When the clover fields 

 were plowed under an almost unbelievable number of earth- 

 worms was revealed as the sod was turned. 



One fact I failed to mention was that this land was not 

 usually considered the finest to begin with. It was a thin top- 

 soil, only six to eight inches in depth over much of the farm, 

 underlaid by limestone. On account of the shallow depth of the 



