WORMS AS GARDENERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 72, 24 March 1923, Page 22

WORMS AS GARDENERS.

One part of my garden has been quite scandalously neglected, writes a "Baily Slail" correspondent. Thousands upon thousands of leaves had fallen, and they had not been swept up. They had been left littered all over "the place—until a gentleman who has a frugal and orderly mind took over the job which I had co shamefully shirked. People who have not learned to respect him call him a worm, generally prefixing some such adjective as horrid, wriggly, nasty slimy or squirmy. But his real name is Lumbricua Terrcstris and by that name 1 intend to address him for the future, except on those occasions 'when, moved by exuberant affection, I may venture so far as to call him Lummy. I Anyone who can tackle a neglected job and do it so thoroughly is deserving of something morn than praise. Fur where the leaves lay littered about my garden you can soe now only a series of the neatest little heaps. With infinite I care he has gathered them together, drawing them inwards towards tlio door of his house downstairs. So that they nii«ht not fly away and mike a mess of the place again, he has supplied mortar to fix them in position. Some bits of them I fancy lie has eaten—and he is most kindly welcome to the mea!. Other bits he has used to paper the entrance hall of his house, and very nicely he has done the job. as you will discover if you will carefully remove one of his little mounds anil examine the tunnel entrance it conceals. The performance of Mr. L. Tcrrit'.is is the more admirable when you consider how very limited is his equipment. He is furnished simply, but, it appears, sufficiently, with a mouth whose upper lip is longer than the lower. He has not a tooth in his head, nor anything in the shape of claws, but each of the rings of which bis energetic body is composed is furnished with four sets of tiny bristles. Also, he has a simple muscular arrangement which enables him to expand or contract his rings at will. Expanding them, he gets lonpr and thin and shoots forward; contracting, the bristles in front hang on to the earth while the rest of him is pulled forward in turn. With that outfit he has tidied up my garden—and yours too. very likely. It is not likely that you will have seen him at work. In common with burglars, mice, journalists, and other modest little animals, he prefers to do his job in the night. And although it is said that he has no eyes, he knows quite well when a ray of light from a. lantern falls on him,' and if you have only soen him sauntering lazily about in the daytime you have no idea how fast he can move I when he likes. I