THE WORM'S GOOD TURN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22860, 15 October 1937, Page 5

THE WORM'S GOOD TURN

WORK FOR FARMERS DEEP-LEVEL CULTIVATION MANY BENEFITS TO SOIL"

BY DAVID ORB

Even a worm might be excused for turning to repudiate the action recently, taken by the Kerepeehi branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, in approaching the Department ol Agriculture to get rid of the worms in their soils for them! Darwin's famous book on earthworms is not yet out of date. It states that the worm is a first-class cultivator, and that without his aid all cultivation would cease. Here are a few facts about the beneficent work of the earthworm. H(burrows into the soil two feet or more. When he ran push his way no further ho literally goes on eating his way into tho soil. Sand and soil, soil and sand pass down his gullet to his crop which is lined with skin liko hard leather. A quantity of grit in the crop acts as a kind of grinding-mill, which crushes the sand to paste. This proces>is facilitated by juices, which he pro duces as he needs them. The self-manufactured paste con tains small particles of vegetable matter. The worm's powerful digestive organs seize upon these particles and turn them into body-building material. The rest of the paste passes through his body in the form of worm castsexcellent fertilising matter for the soil. The worms of England pass some three hundred million tons of earth through their little bodies each year. Trips to the Surface

Though sightless, the worm's skin is sensitive to light; so he does not go to the surface of the soil until night. His reasons for making his way up to the outer air are for a change of diet, and also to drink the dew and to bathe in it. While on the surface of the soil, he will find minute portions of withered leaves and shrivelled roots~ too small to he seen without the aid of the microscope. No matter how old. no matter how shrivelled or decomposed a root may be, the earthworm can turn it into nutritious food. Nature's Cultivators Nature ever plans for future generations. Long ago, she placed in reserve vast stores of food for the earthworm workers she has brought to the soils of New Zealand and other countries; The cavities left by decayed plant roots make it easy for the worm to sink his shaft two feet or more in depth—or about three times as deep as the plough could have reached—before he begins his task. Slowly, but gradually and systematically, the worm is doing for the farmer what nien and horses could not have done except at ruinous cost. Tako heart, farmers! —the more worms, the more plant food; the more food, the more worms again, to live on it. The more food and worms together, the more little grinding mills to crush inorganic matter into fertilising material, leaving it on the surface to form a perfect bod for seeds. New roots feed on old roots below; young life feeds on decay; for nothing really dies m tjie soil, so long as the worm and the soil-bacterium keep on living. These tiny workers are no boasters. They only work miracles.