334 
Vegetable Soil . 
[June’ 
One of the adjoining walks had its edges negledted for 
about eighteen months, during which time the grass had 
encroached on the walk for from two to five inches. Three 
perches of one of the edges I cut myself during the first 
week in October, carefully examining the sods, in which I 
found ten seedling worms, some so small that they could 
scarcely be detected, and one large worm. Afraid some 
worms might be buried I examined the place carefully for 
two weeks, but not a worm came up, although the weather 
was most favourable for worm work, as could be seen by the 
daily new casts in the adjoining grass. 
Many of the walks were made of “ mine gravel,” in which 
weeds will not grow, or worms burrow or creep across. In 
the autumn of 1880 one of these walks was coated with river 
gravel, and during last summer and autumn it became coated 
with grass, and in this grass I could not detedt a worm cast or 
a worm when the walk was scuffled and cleaned in January. 
Another walk was carted over in the winter of 1880, and 
when cleaned in the spring, some patches of clay were left 
on it. On these I observed worm casts in October, which 
were examined, and I found that none of the worm burrows 
went below the clay, although on an average the patches 
were not more than half an inch thick. These fadts appear 
to suggest that the growth of soil on walks and such like is 
not much due to worm work. 
On a clayey, shady walk along the south hedge of the 
garden, and partially overhung by trees, the worms usually 
throw up cast for from seven to eight months in the year, 
but never in great numbers at a time. 
This winter (1881 — 1882) has been exceptional for study- 
ing worm work in this country, as they have been able 
to be nearly continuously at work from the time they began 
in the end of September, there having been only one week of 
continued frost and a few other odd days that prevented 
their working, while in general the weather was warm and 
moist. Even in places where they seldom do much work, 
such as the upper heathery, grassy slopes of the hills, worm 
work this year is so conspicuous that the natives remark it, 
and state that there are ten worms for one of an ordinary 
year; the casts also are much larger. In such a field in 
Glenow, Co. Wicklow, about 800 feet above the sea, I found 
them exceptionally numerous and large, there being on an 
average eleven casts to the square foot, average ones having 
diameter and height of about 2*5 inches, while some had 
diameters of over 5 inches, and exceptionally tall ones had 
heights of 6 inches, the latter usually having small diameters 
