EARTHWORMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 236, 5 October 1937, Page 19

EARTHWORMS.

ARE THEY PESTS?

FARMERS' BEST FRIENDS.

"BARKING UP WRONG TREE." Are earthworms pests? This ie an important question for all farmers and gardeners, for upon the answer depends in a large measure the future of their lands. Recently it was announced that the farmers in the vicinity of Kerepeehi, on the Haiiraki Plains, in the Xorth Island, had declared war on worms. These were described as pestft, and it was suggested that the Department of Agriculture should be approached for assistance in getting rid of them. It will be recalled that the matter was before a meeting of the Kere.peehi branch of the Xew Zealand Farmers' Union at which it was estimated with alarm that the worm population near there was 82.000,000 to the acre, and increasing rapidly.

Lest other farmers and gardeners should be influenced by this report and throw their forces into the battle against worms, it will be of importance to record the opinion of Professor W. B. Benham. F.R.S., formerly professor of biology in the University of Otago. Prof. Benham is a world authority on earthworms, a student of their life histories and thjeir economic value.

"Those farmers are barking up the wrong tree," he said. "Charles Darwin has β-hown, and so have others after him, that the earthworm is one of the farmer's best friends. If it were not for the worms, the soil could not support the life it? does support, and if the Hauraki farmers destroy all their worms then they might as well close up their farms.

"I do wish I had the figures and all the data with me; but nevertheless the farmery should Tinderstf.nd that they are most certainly wrong. The worms eat holes in the soil and let the air down into it. When they eject the soil again it is a highly nutritive vegetable mould upon which plants thrive. The natural processes of the little worms are therefore of very big consequence.

"Seeds will germinate far quicker in this vegetable mould than in ordinary soil. Anyone who has a lawn will recognise the worm castings above the surface, and ehould note that this is the nutritive vegetable matter upon which the lawn will thrive. There is ne possibility whatsoever of earthworms operating as a pest. Rather they are a great army of allies for the farmer."

Professor Benham was not prepared to believe the report that the worm population on parts of the Hauraki Plains was 82,00.000 to the acre. He thought, it was more likely to be 82,000. Whatever the figure, the more the better, he said.