EARTHWORM CULTURE 103 



In a few words, the way to begin earthworm culture is to 

 provide a culture medium of earthworm food in some kind of 

 container or bed a tin can, a small wooden box, a compost 

 heap, or a specially designed culture bed add a few egg-capsules 

 or worms, and keep the culture thoroughly moist and shaded. 

 Further discussion of earthworm food will come later. We have 

 already covered the subject of food for worms in a general man- 

 ner. Results obtained will, of course, be commensurate with 

 the care and effort expended. Engaging in earthworm culture is 

 very much like starting in to raise chickens. One can start with 

 a few eggs and increase slowly, or start with a large number of 

 eggs and increase rapidly. For a small yard or garden, a small 

 setup is all that is required one or two cans or box cultures. 

 For a greater amount of land, a proportionately greater setup 

 should be made as a beginning. As an example of the rapidity 

 of increase which can be made from a small beginning, one 

 thousand egg-capsules were incubated and hatched out. From 

 this start four lug-box cultures (see illustrations and instructions 

 on box culture) of five hundred worms each were set up. Within 

 one year from the time this setup was made, a total of 55,000 

 egg-capsules had been harvested from these four boxes. The 

 increase was used to impregnate extensive soil-building culture 

 beds and compost heaps and at the end of the first year vast 

 numbers of the soil-builders were at work and multiplying in 

 many tons of composted soil-building material. 



Once the initial beginning is made, with a modest cash 

 investment of from five dollars on up to about twenty-five dol- 

 lars, the main money-cost involved is the small amount of labor 

 required in taking care of the cultures. The material which is 

 used in providing soil-building food for the worms is the same 

 material which should be incorporated into the soil anyway in 

 building and maintaining the highest state of fertility. 



Where too small a beginning is made, one is apt to become 

 discouraged with the slow progress made in building up an 

 adequate number of breeding earthworms to show satisfactory 



