STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
687 
EARTH-WORM. IS NOT THE LARVA OF AN INSECT. FEEDS ON EARTHY MATTER. 
for angling, we cannot but regard as being identical with the correspond¬ 
ing worm of the European continent, named Lumbricus terrestris by Lin- 
naius, though some have supposed it to be probably a distinct species. 
When we recur to the fact that this worm is so common in gardens that 
every box and pot of earth in which live plants are carried from one con 
tinent to the other, will be liable to contain some of them and transport 
them over the ocean, we see how very improbable it is but that the species 
of the one continent will be common on the other continent also. 
As a notable instance of the manner in which men of science sometimes 
toil and waste their energies in heaping up piles of dust to be scattered 
and dispersed by the next wind which passes by, we have the fact that M. 
Savigny distinguished and described twenty species of these worms which 
subsequent naturalists regard as merely varieties of one common species. 
We have here an example of a worm which is not the larva of an insect. 
This Earth-worm undergoes no metamorphosis; it always retains the form 
in which we are accustomed to see it. It is most nearly related to the 
leech and the hair-snake, and is accordingly associated with them in the 
class of animals to which the name “ Worms” in strictness belongs. It 
consequently does not pertain to the department of my investigations. I 
however notice it, for the purpose of reporting some observations which 
have incidentally occurred to me, and which are deemed to be of interest 
as throwing additional light, particularly upon the food upon which this 
creature subsists, and upon the holes or burrows which it makes under¬ 
ground. 
It is currently stated by authors that these earth-worms feed upon earthy 
matter, from which they digest the fine vegetable mold contained therein, 
and eject the remainder at the mouths of their burrows. By crawling 
about in the ground as they do, they are most important and serviceable 
agents in loosening the soil and opening it for the air and water to pene¬ 
trate it. And by throwing out their castings at the mouths of their holes, 
they add to the depth of the soil, and cover tracts that are comparatively 
barren, with a superficial layer of fine, fertile soil. Hereby also, as many 
who read these lines will probably remember to have observed, a stone or 
chip which is lying upon the surface of the earth where the ground remains 
undisturbed, will in a few years become sunk wholly beneath it. It is 
some ten years ago, that, ill flagging a walk in my yard, several large flat 
stones which were rejected as being too thin and unsubstantial for this 
work, were carried aside to an unoccupied part of the yard and laid upon 
the grass, with the thought that some use to which they might be appro¬ 
priated would perhaps occur. By the grass growing over their edges they 
in two or three years were hid from view, and had become totally forgot¬ 
ten, till recently, happening to strike a hoe in the ground there, they were 
re-discovered. They were found to be sunk, each one, about an inch below 
the surface, being overlaid, to this depth by fine gritty earthy matter, with 
only its upper part permeated by the roots of grass. I could attribute 
this deposit of earthy matter upon the upper side of these refuse flagging 
b tones to nothing else than the operations of earth-worms. Instances of a 
