150 HARNESSING THE EARTHWORM 



Earthworms: 150,000 to the Acre 

 By Williams Haynes 



(This article reproduced by permission of FARM JOUKNAL AND 

 FARMER'S WIFE and by permission of WILLIAMS HAYNES) 



FISHERMEN each season dangle millions of earthworms in likely 

 waters. No other bait enjoys such popularity with anglers. The 

 fish may, or may not, hold similar views. 



Christopher Gallup looks at the earthworm as bait for big- 

 ger crops. More earthworms, he contends, mean higher fertility. 



In evidence he offers a yield of 196 bushel baskets of ear 

 corn, in contrast to the 80 bushels his earlier methods produced. 

 His swarming earthworms annually leave more than eight tons 

 of their casts per acre. (The cast is the deposit after the worm 

 digests the vegetable and mineral material which it eats.) 



Then Gallup points to the chemical analysis of these casts. 

 Compared with other topsoil, they contain five times as much ni- 

 trogen, seven times as much phosphorus, eleven times as much 

 potash, three times as much magnesium. 



How does one persuade the earthworms to multiply? Feed 

 them, says Gallup; feed them trash and organic matter. His 

 method is to work everything possible into the top six inches of 

 soil, where, in the lower four inches, the worms do most of their 

 living. 



Gallup's farm lies among stony hills of eastern Connecticut. 

 Two hundred and seventy years ago when King Philip and his 

 Narragansett braves, in 1675, took to the war-path and ravaged 

 that corner of Connecticut, a forebear of Christopher Gallup al- 

 ready had some of the farm cleared. 



Fifteen years ago, determined to be successful as a farmer, 

 as he had previously been in a Hartford insurance company, 

 Gallup began operating the family's ancient homestead. 



