86 HARNESSING THE EARTHWORM 



which it is born. It is hatched from the egg-capsule as a f-ull- 

 fledged earthworm and immediately begins its life-work of de- 

 vouring the surrounding soil in search for sustenance. It grows 

 to maturity on the available food present, and its chemical 

 makeup adapts itself to the particular element in which it lives. 

 Transfer the native earthworm to a different soil or food, and 

 it will usually die, or at least require a long period of time to 

 adapt itself and become prolific in the new location. 



Another important consideration in earthworm culture is 

 the question of fertility and proliferation. In some species, great 

 numbers of infertile capsules are produced and only one or two 

 worms will be hatched from the fertile capsule. In other species 

 practically all the capsules are fertile, and each will hatch out 

 from three or four to as high as twenty worms. Some species 

 Jive and thrive only in a very limited range of soil acidity; in 

 fact, must have an almost neutral soil to survive. Others will 

 thrive and multiply in a very wide range of soil, from very acid 

 to markedly alkaline. The serious importance of this point of 

 soil acidity will be appreciated by those who have made some 

 study of the chemical nature of soils and plant nutrition. 



In what we have termed "selective feeding and breeding," 

 various species of earthworms were used, habits observed, unde- 

 sirable members culled out, and gradually cultures of earthworms 

 were obtained which answered the purposes of intensive propaga- 

 tion under control for horticultural, agricultural, and other uses. 

 When we speak of "domesticated earthworms," we are dealing 

 with native earthworms which have been modified by environ- 

 ment and feeding. When earthworm egg-capsules are hatched 

 out in a new environment, that environment becomes the natural 

 one for the newly hatched worms, whereas a worm which has 

 developed in an entirely different environment might not survive 

 if transplanted into a strange soil. It is this fact of the adapt- 

 ability of the newly hatched worm to the particular soil in which 

 it is hatched which makes it possible to engage in intensive earth- 

 worm culture for the production of egg-capsules which, when 



