DOMESTICATED EARTHWORMS 87 



placed in a new environment, will hatch worms that are adapted 

 to the soil in which they are born. 



So great is the modification of various species of native 

 earthworms, under special environmental conditions and feed- 

 ing, that the layman or untrained observer may conclude that he 

 has produced a new species of earthworm. However, when we 

 submit the "domesticated earthworm" to a competent zoologist 

 for laboratory identification and classification, we learn that we 

 are still dealing with some species of native earthworm which 

 has been modified by changes in environment and nutritional 

 factors. Thus when we observe marked changes in earthworms, 

 under special breeding and cultural conditions, we should not 

 jump to the conclusion that we have discovered or produced a 

 new species of earthworm. As stated before, earthworms have 

 survived through remote geological ages down to the present 

 practically unchanged as to species, but with widely varying 

 characteristics in different localities, such characteristics being 

 due to the fact that the worms change and adapt themselves to 

 the nutritional environment into which they have been hatched. 

 The wide distribution of earthworms throughout the earth is 

 due to the fact that they can adapt themselves to new environ- 

 ments and new foods. 



Regardless of where earthworms are found, or what species 

 we are dealing with, the one important fact to bear in mind is 

 that all of them accomplish the same end they eat their way 

 through the earth, swallowing the soil with all that it contains, 

 carrying it through the digestive mill of the alimentary canal, 

 and finally ejecting it as highly refined and conditioned topsoil. 



At this point, we wish to give full credit to the late Dr. 

 George Sheffield Oliver for the development of the "domesticated 

 earthworm" which we have used in our soil-building research. 

 In the story of "My Grandfather's Earthworm Farm," we have 

 the background of Dr. Oliver's later experiments and accom- 

 plishments in earthworm culture. His experiences as a small 

 boy on that Ohio farm implanted in his young mind those in- 



