94 



THE EARTH-WORM, CONSIDERED 



at, on account of the injury they did to the rising seeds, or the ripe fruit 

 which they ate or destroyed. The injuries done by insects of whatever kind 

 then passed under the general term of blight. The scientific study of insects 

 had then made little or no progress in this country ; and it does not appear 

 to have been then known that birds, though injurious to gardens to a limited 

 extent, are yet on the whole, by living in great part on insects, slugs, worms, 

 &c., the gardener's best friends. Neither does the use of certain reptiles, 

 such as the frog and toad, and even of quadrupeds, such as the weazel, appear 

 to have been understood in gardens by the gardeners of the past generation. 

 In the present day, however, this branch of garden management, like every 

 other, has been subjected to scientific inquiry, and the object of this chapter 

 is to generalize the results ; leaving details relative to particular species of 

 garden vermin till we come to treat of the plants by which they are chiefly 

 affected. The order which we shall follow will be that of w^orms, slugs, 

 snails, insects, reptiles, birds, and quadrupeds. 



Sect. I. — The Earth-Worm, considered with reference to Horticulture^ 



290. humhricus terrestris L., the common earth-worm, has a long cylin- 

 drical contractile body without eyes, tentacula, or any external appendages ; 

 the head being only distinguishable from the posterior extremities by being 

 more narrow, and pointed. The mouth is a small orifice at one extremity, 

 formed by two lips, of which the upper one is the larger and more pro- 

 jecting. The alimentary canal extends from the mouth to the opposite 

 extremity, where it ends in the vent. The stomach is composed of two 

 pouches, of which the first is membranous, and may be compared to a crop ; 

 while the second is muscular, and is analogous to a gizzard. About one 

 third of its length from the mouth there is a sort of belt (clitellum) en- 

 circling the body, consisting of from six to nine rings, which are more 

 prominent and fleshy than the others, and which indicate the position of 

 the organs required for the reproduction of the species. The worm being 

 hermaphrodite, it follows that every individual is furnished with a similar 

 belt. The earth-worm has a well- developed ganglionated nervous system, 

 but it appears that it has only the senses of taste and touch ; the latter it 

 possesses to an exquisite degree, as every one must have observed when ap- 

 proaching a worm half-extended from its hole. The worm is sensibly alive 

 to every influence of the season and of the atmosphere ; burrowing in 

 winter to the depth of three or four feet when the cold is at the greatest, 

 and equally deep during the greatest heats of summer. On the approach of 

 rain or of thaw, it comes up close to the surface ; moderate rains being agree- 

 able to the worms, but standing pools of water over their holes drowning 

 them. The taste of the worm is probably much less acute than its touch, 

 since it is doomed to feed upon the soil in which it burrows, swallowing the 

 earth mixed with all its decaying organised remains, from which its mitri- 

 ment is extracted. W orms often draw into their holes blades of grass, 

 straws, fallen leaves, &c. ; but these are scarcely for the purpose of food, 

 though they have been found occasionally in the stomach, as well as small 

 stones or gravel. 



291. Whether worms breed oftener than once a year is uncertain. They 

 either produce their young already hatched, or lay eggs. The eggs are 



