690 
ANNUAL REPORT OP NEW TORE 
EARTH-WORM. IS A PEST IN GARDENS. REMEDIES TO REPEL THESE WORMS. 
into the mouths of their holes and consume, and not unfrequently the 
plants themselves are hereby uprooted and drawn away from the places 
where they had been set. In other instances, without drawing them under 
the ground, where two or three slightly wilted leaves are lying together 
upon the surface, keeping it moist and shaded from the sun’s rays, these 
worms delight to ascend there in the day time and feed upon the under 
portions of the foliage. And when in this situation, on discovering the 
near approach of a person, they are so startled as to make a perceptible 
rustling and agitation of the leaves in their haste to retreat into their holes. 
Thus transplanted lettuce, turnips, etc., are liable to be injured and some 
of the plants to be destroyed by these worms. 
Another calamity frequently befalls some portions of the beds in our 
gardens when the seeds sowed therein first start out of the ground. Rows 
of young plants which we to-day notice as having come up profusely and 
finely, it may be are to-morrow observed to have large vacant spots in them, 
and in a few days more perhaps not a single plant is remaining. Cut worms 
sometimes destroy small portions of the rows in this manner; but then some 
of the small wilted leaves are seen, drawn partly into a crack in the ground, 
at which place it is also noticed that the surface soil has been newly loosened 
by the worm in entering the ground there, and on digging the worm itself 
is found lying slightly under the surface. But here, the beds, or large 
portions of them, are swept clean, with no wilted leaves left, no disturbance 
of the soil, no trace whatever to indicate to us the enemy that has destroyed 
the newly sprouted plants, save only that holes of the earth-worms are 
seen here in the beds the same as in all the surrounding soil. And I am 
persuaded it is these worms issuing from their holes by night and feeding 
upon the tender newly sprouted plants, which occasions their sudden dis¬ 
appearance in this manner. 
I may further remark that in young cabbages, beans, and other garden 
vegetation, we frequently see a large hole eaten in a leaf or a portion of 
its margin consumed, when no caterpillars, cut worm, or other insect larva 
to which we can impute this casualty, is to be found upon or anywhere 
near the plant. And I believe it is often these earth worms which thus 
wound the leaves, although to do so they must in some of these instances 
ascend the stems of the plants such a distance that little if any of their 
body remains upon the ground. 
I have my life long deemed these worms to be perfectly innocent of harm 
and serviceable to us by keeping the ground loosened and porous. But 
within a few years past, having come to look particularly at their opera¬ 
tions, I am forced to change my opinion. In our plowed fields, our meadows 
and pastures, they are probably to be regarded as doing more good than 
harm. But where they become so multiplied as they do in the rich soil of 
our gardens they are a pest and a nuisance. ' 
Have we any remedy against these worms ? Upon this point I have not 
yet sufficient experience to enable me to speak with confidence. I have 
observed that when a light approaches Jhem in the night time-they imme¬ 
diately retreat underground, and it therefore appears probable that if a 
