92 HARNESSING THE EARTHWORM 



and the stronger ones were retained as breeders. During the 

 first six months about one thousand hybrids had been selected 

 as breeders and were mating and producing fertile eggs. For a 

 period of several years I continued careful selective breeding and 

 feeding until I had developed a hybrid which breeds true to form 

 and is perfectly adapted for intensive propagation and use in 

 horticulture and agriculture. 



While the story of my experiments appears very simple in 

 the recounting, it should be stated that a full five years were 

 consumed in these experiments. However, the results obtained 

 in orchards, nurseries, gardens, lawns, and poultry houses have 

 proved that this five years' time spent was fully justified. To 

 summarize results for the earthworm culturist, from a practical 

 standpoint, this domesticated hybrid has many charcteristics of 

 special value, some of them being : 



It is a prolific breeder, under favorable conditions producing 

 one egg capsule every seven days. A very high percentage of 

 the capsules are fertile and they hatch out from four to twenty 

 young worms each. 



It is a free animal, readily adapting itself to any food en- 

 vironment or soil. Thus all the wastes of the ordinary family 

 can be composted and used for earthworm food. It turns these 

 end-products into rich humus, practically odorless and contain- 

 ing all the elements necessary for growing choice plants and 

 vegetables. 



It is not migratory. Thus when a breeding colony is es- 

 tablished under a tree, in a flower bed, under a rosebush, or 

 elsewhere, the home breeding center remains and the worms 

 gradually spread in all directions in an ever-widening circle, until 

 all the surrounding ground is thickly populated with this prolific 

 breeder and cultivator of the soil. 



A point which should be strongly emphasized is that this 

 hybrid worm produces a very fine, granular casting instead of a 

 lobed casting. The castings do not stick together, but are de- 

 posited as a very evenly distributed layer on the surface. In 

 loose, crumbly material, many of the castings are deposited below 

 the surface in proximity to the rootlets where they are needed. 



While I was not experimenting particularly to produce fish 

 bait, this hybrid is unexcelled for bait. It is very active, of a 

 good red color, and will remain alive on a fish-hook for a num- 

 ber of hours when properly impaled. 



