100 
UTILITY OF EARTHWORMS. 
of the wild fig upon the domestic tree, in order that the insects 
which frequented the former might hasten the ripening of the 
cultivated fig by their punctures—or, as others suppose, might 
fructify it by transporting to it the pollen of the wild fruit— 
and this process, called caprification, is not yet entirely obsolete. 
The earthworms long ago made good their title to the respect 
and gratitude of the farmer as well as ot the angler. The 
utility of the earthworms has been pointed out in many 
scientific as well as in many agricultural treatises. The fol¬ 
lowing extract, cut from a newspaper, will answer my present 
purpose: 
“ Mr. Josiah Parkes, the consulting engineer of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England, says that worms are great 
assistants to the drainer, and valuable aids to the farmer in 
keeping up the fertility of the soil. lie says they love moist, 
but not wet soils ; they will bore down to, but not into water ; 
they multiply rapidly on land after drainage, and prefer a 
deeply dried soil. On examining with Mr. Thomas Ham¬ 
mond, of Penhurst, Kent, part of a field which he had deeply 
drained, after long-previous shallow drainage, he found that 
the worms had greatly increased in number, and that their 
bores descended quite to the level of the pipes. Many worm 
bores were large enough to receive the little finger. Mr. 
Henry Handley had informed him of a piece of land near the 
sea in Lincolnshire, over which the sea had broken and killed 
all the worms—the field remained sterile until the worms 
again inhabited it. He also showed him a piece of pasture 
land near to his house, in which worms were in such numbers 
that he thought their casts interfered too much with its pro¬ 
duce, which induced him to have it rolled at night in order to 
destroy the worms. The result w r as, that the fertility of the 
field greatly declined, nor was it restored until they had 
recruited their numbers, which was aided by collecting and 
transporting multitudes of worms from the fields. 
“ The great depth into which worms will bore, and from 
which they push up fine fertile soil, and cast it on the surface, 
has been admirably traced by Mr. C. Darwin, of Down, Kent, 
