MOLE AND HEDGEHOG. 



71 



temperate climes, we have to depend for the growth 

 of our crops ; — in fact, the worm may, in a sense, be truly 

 said to renew the face of the earth. 



Worms also do a vast amount of good by their borings 

 through the soil, in loosening it and keeping it open ; 

 without them the soil would cake together and become 

 hard, dead, and unproductive. It is only necessary to 

 remind farmers and gardeners of the increased productive 

 ness in soil caused sim.ply and solely by tillage to make this 

 point clear. 



Like many other excellent things, however, it is quite 

 possible to have too much of the earthworm. But we are 

 not (at least in this country) in much danger of this ; for 

 such a state of things has been carefully guarded against in 

 the scheme of nature. It is wonderful what a number of 

 creatures eat earthworms ; birds, beasts, reptiles, and even 

 (as we have been lately told) a species of snail feed on 

 them ; and it is hardly necessary to add that most kinds of 

 fish relish the worm when they can get it. But the earth- 

 worm is very prolific, and although in gardens and in 

 thickly wooded and enclosed country the surface-feeding 

 creatures might be sufficient to keep down their numbers, 

 yet in open arable and pasture land, where woodland birds 

 are less numerous, and there is less harbour for some of the 

 earthworm's four-footed enemies, they would probably prove 

 wholly inadequate for the purpose. Here it is that the 

 mole comes in. He wants no shelter, for he works under- 

 ground, and pushing his runs through the earth attacks the 

 worm (literally) in its own ground, where it is safe from 

 •surface-feeding creatures. 



Every farmer will have a kindly feeling for an enemy of 

 the wire- worm, and in this category the mole is certainly to 

 be placed. 



In 1830, Mr. Le Keux, writing with regard to the wire- 

 worm in Devonshire, remarks : I think it probable that 



