The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-04
WAYS OF THE EARTHWORM.

interesting Facts About the small
Boys Favorite Fish Bait.
Earth worms have a reason for being
ever so much more important than to
serve as bait for fishermen. For all
their lowly estate, few creations have
done more for mankind. Earth worms
are not merely the original ploughmeh
they have brought about the condl-
tion of the earths surface that makes
other ploughing possible and profitable.
Field crops, for the most part, grow
and feed upon vegetable mold-the lay
er of warm, light, brackish earth rest
ing upon the sub-soil Save by grace
Of the earth worm vegetable mold Woulu
exist only in those places Where deao
leaves and decaying growths generaiiy
resolved themselves into their original
elements. The earth worm, when may
be described as an embodied appatlte
eats everythlng-animal matter, green
leaves and dead ones, twigs, leaf stalks,
small stones and earth. The residium
| of all he casts up on the surface at the
rate. throughout pastures and garden
ground Of some ten tons year. Con-
tinue the process a hundred years or
even fifty, and many inches OF fine ira
bic. productive soil result.
Beyond all that, their burrows let
down light and air from the subsoil.
Sometimes the burrows run six feet
deep. In winter the worms hibernate
in roundsh chambers at the bottom.
The chambers are lined with very small
stones or hard, rounded seed. A dozen
worms sleep together, knotted into
suuirming ball. 1t is only in the WIN
ter sleep that they are thus gregarious
At other times they go in pairs. Though
they do not in captivity appear very
sensible of either cold or heat. in hot
dry weather they go almost as far
down as they do in winter.
Eyeless, they have yet certain per
ception of light retreating before IT to
their burrows. Vibration also affects
them-hence, say the country folk, the
woodcock's habit of drumming to call
them out of the ground. Their sense
of smell is acute and by the help of 1t
they find their food either buried or
lying upon the surface. AS soon as 1t
is found the worms drag it to the bur
row. They hurrow by pressure Of their
smooth ringed bodies and by literally
tive apparatus includes a crop end glz-
gard, like those of birds. After the
manner of birds, the gizzards are kept
supplied with small stones to serve as
millstones in grinding down the food.
The burrows are plastered all round
with the finely chewed earth, and keep
shape after they are untenated. From
the dead leaves which make so large
a part of their food the worms secrete
humus acids, which attack and help to
dissolve the rocks buried in the soil.
Thus the oarthworms not merely trans
form the soil chemically and mechanic
ally but add to the bulk of it-since |
soil of every kind comes from the disin-
teoration of rocks. Further, many |
leaves dragged down into the burrows |
are only partly eaten and. decaying. |
furnish gases which permeate the soil |
and react upon it's mineral element.
Earthworms are the best allies of |
those gentlemen, the antiquaries. A
coin, an arrow head, a spear point, an
inscribed slab, a tesselated pavement,
they bury. eure1v, safely, to await the
lay of resurrection. The burying is
lone in two ways-by castings spread
ipoNe lHe lulnS 10 ne puileu anu Dy
undermining the soil beneath. Earth
with burrows sinks in
lines of heavy rain or frost. Thus. in
course of a thousand years, an object
nay be many feet under the surface,
yet remain exactly as it fell. Indeed,
he wise men declare the earthworms.
n the mass, keep the whole face of the
,lanet in state of gradual evolution
from the ST. Louis Globe Democrat.