Show t I FARMING F DEPENDS S Living Soil GH Grinders ON ANTS AMTS AND EARTHWORMS BY J H PAUL DIRECTOR OF NATURE MATURE STUDY IN THE STATE NORMAL r All AH people probably detest ants ant an and few there are that do not abominate earthworms Hereditary Instincts due largely t to false ideas in the past have caused u uto us usi uto to shudder at the mere appearance o e of i 1 our roost roo t useful servants So depend dependent ent eat are we however upon uron the inces ince incessant sant activity of these two classes o e of obscure creatures that we should certainly perish if both the orders were wen to disappear from the earths surface and it is not even certain that we coin Uld survive the extinction of ot either class For though we turn from them as ob objects sects of disgust and fear they are arc nev nevertheless nevertheless the best and greatest of our oui soil makers and aed plowmen In fact w we have llave no animal servants precisely equal equa to them in the value alue of ot the service rendered And if any study of then thes organized species des cies should serve to mitigate the name nameless nameless less dread and instinctive horror o otheir 01 of their presence and they are aro always alway with us or to barish from the We mind of ot the supersensitive somo some of that thai lifelong nervous nerous which many experience at sight eight of ot these then harmless and humble servants of ot man kindt hen this thin nature lesson will hay have been worth while for tor other than scion scientific reasons and aud the advancement ol of o methods It la iskin in this latter interest in interest interest terest that these papers are written but perhaps no na exception will bo be taken taker if they are aro made to serve sere also a little wider purpose The writer therefore assures the public that only certain species of ants will bite bile at i 1 all and ani these only when they are cornered Ir it Irritated or driven to it In self defense while earthworms have no teeth and ani andare andare are as harmless as the soil they till for tor forus folus us A Look at the Soil Soli If lt you will go into some somo dry gulch gulchIn gulchin In any of ot the valleys of Utah into which the annual spring freshets have cut from year to year you can see seo the thc exposed banks of many feet teet of ot the fin finished finIshed fished product of ot the great soil Boll factories the canyons canons and mountain sides from which this product came You Tou may read there as in an open book much Duch of the history and many of the thc activities of that wonderful i storehouse of plant food the soil It is a great chemical and biological laboratory a sort of nature workshop for the tho final preparation of food for fOl plant life Ufe For soil Is not finished when Jt it leaves the canyon however finely ground round and well mixed it may have been Stone powder ponder is not necessarily toil soil l oil I Observe the sides of ot the earth gulch It is 15 In layers like liko a n stratified mcl roc The top layer Is Invariably more or less dark In the case casc of very ery rich soils ap approaching approaching black this color being due to the presence of organic matter vegetable mold made up most mostly mostly mostly ly of decayed leaves A few inches lower the soil boil Is usually a light brown brownIn In color and still sUll deeper a yellow ellow col colored colored colored ored soil is frequently encountered Then comes sand red or white then gravel then cement or clay or some sort of substratum more or less imper imperious impervious ious to water Large stones atones usually us IY He lie beneath sometimes coming to the surface of ot the soil When stones are an found fund scattered over the valley It is because they have been carried there thereby thereby by b floods pear flear ear the middle of ot every e eI valley in inthe inthe inthe the Great Basin the soil soU layers may be he heM beso than twenty M so deep usually more feet and not infrequently feet in depth Iso so productive uve are the western canyons and an mountains as soil soU fac factories tories that the succession sion of earth layers here Indicated may not be so readily perceived pel but everywhere on the sloping and bench lands this sort of layering the first form and lind prevail prevailing lag ins order of stratification is the usual I IThe condition The Crude Pra Product I soil however is a crude crud product which needs ID to 1 be refined before it is the best of its kind If you OU have ever noticed a farmer plow with the sub seller you will understand Though that hidden plowshare turns tums up noth nothing nothing nothing ing yet when it is lifted to the sur surface surface surface face the and bright brighi point will usually bring up some sort of clay flay often bright colored colore nod nearly always very unlike the top topsoil soil soft which Is always more or less black The most fertile soil soH indeed Is quite black when moist You Tou can find It at any place amid the small oak brush bru h of ot our halls hm and nd sometimes under the tho sagebrush It Is formed bf hi leaves thoroughly decayed and of ot the rock dust the sand the silt the formation of ot which from the rocks has hac been b n pre vre previously previously described When the farmer plows App jp the subsoil it is to let the theair theair air aJr the earthworms and the bacteria get gret to work upon It and render it part 1 em m an ani longitudinal section of the body bod show aho in the as seen a of Fro Flo 74 A diagram al B 8 diagram d pIr of f c W inz IN the two wo tube the c lom and end th alimentary alime tube an nus cz ox o lom in m mouth i y yC t 0 C m dv f v a r CU i 1 ty LG ILO ate mac 1 Sm f fi i no iu Via Q 8 jIa o 87 Transferee section of the body behind the Hum oe oc of the alimentary canal anal c cuticle COB cm c co cm c m circular air Ir tar lar muscles cv ev circular I d till r v dorsal Wessel esrel ky kp 11 Lm al muscles nc Co ventral n f pc t peri perl peritoneal I tonal epithelium i s seta aela ig sp se ae a gland jv t retinal easel s w m J 1 i muscle connecting the tho two pt ceto se oo the some same sido ty trI of the fertile ferUle top layer The advantage advantage tage of deep plowing is is i that it brings up the new soil soli deeply charged with mineral matter malter that hanot ha has hanot not been used up by the roots of ol plants for these usually spread through the surface soil soli What becomes of the disintegrated rock that forms forma the soil soU The water runs from the mountain side to the tin stream and the stream flows Into the valley valle ending its course in lake or riv river river er or In times of freshets fresl and floods the to soil soH is carried over the tho surface of the thc earth further and further t from the thc mountain mountainside side Clear likewise Iou f i i r j n w r C sI i Q pJ UPP offs of lit r r Ce le Pig Fig l Diagram of the alimentary alimentary ali n tary can Jofan earth earthworm worm S Lum copied from Ray Lan Lankester Lan Lank kester k in Quart Journ of l Rn ea 0 vol zT n T NS JO pi pl vii v carrying materials in solution and is continually depositing solid soUd substances upon the land over which it t flows and evaporates The Final Soil Soli Grinders Even now the soil is not yet ready for all aU forms of ot agriculture For the finer growths this soil must be still further ground up and mixed with organic mat mater matter ter er before It becomes plant pl mt food in a form Conn in which the more delicate de plants can make use ule of it How is this done doneIt It has been shown by scientists that tha the vegetable mold which forms the richest and most productive portions of the soil is formed chiefly by the inces incessant incessant Incessant sant labors of 01 the apparently useless little creatures which we call earth earthworms earthworms earthworms worms or angleworms The uniform fineness of soil its permanence from remote times and Its ita continued renewal whenever the land rests are facts that have confirmed tha view of close observers that these animals s so o olow low in the scale of organization and so poorly provided with are yet among the greatest of the servants of mankind and are active participants in preparing for man the first actual condition of permanent civilization a fertile and Inexhaustible soil In a former chapter it was shown how the acid called carbon eats tho the rock and produces pr duces soil but in the soil soli Itself other agencies continue the work Humus acids are in part formed by bythe bythe bythe the digestion of the half halt decayed leaves which the worms consume Particles of softer rock are arse ar ground In the mus muscular muscular muscular cular gizzards of worms in which small stones mones serve as millstones The worm wann castings are carried over the surface ground by rain and wind and the su superficial superficial superficial mold is thus prevented from accumulating in any anyone one place In many places the worms bring a layer of earth of an inch in thickness to the surface of ot some acres In a single year This fine powder if formed on the up uplands uplands uplands lands or mountain sides Bides as it generally Is In moist countries is carried down every valley alley and finally to the ocean or lake Think of the Mississippi river It lowers the soil surface of its enor enormous enormous enormous drainage area two and a half halt thousandths of ot an inch per year and carries this soil into the gulf gult In years It should carry at this rate all the soil of its drainage area into the thea sea a This calculation shows that the work of the earthworm in moist coun countries countries countries tries is comparable in amount with the work of ot the greatest rivers riv rs The First Observer Gilbert White an English clergyman years ago wrote one of 01 the most charming treatises on nature study that ever came from the pen of any writer He was the first apparently to write of ot the earthworm In his Natural History of Selborne letter 33 35 we read Selborne May 20 1777 Dear Sir Lands that are subject t to frequent Inundations are always poor and probably the reason may be that the worms are drowned The most In Insignificant Insignificant Insignificant significant insects and reptiles are of more consequence and have much more influence in the economy of ot na nature nature nature ture than the Incurious are aware of and are mighty in their effect from their minuteness which renders enders them less an object of ot attention and from their numbers and fecundity Earth Earthworms Earthworms worms though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of ot na nature nature nature ture yet if it lost would make a lament lamentable lamentable lamentable able chasm For to say nothing of halt hall the birds and some quadrupeds which are almost entirely supported by them worms seem to be the great promoters of vegetation which would proceed but lamely without them by boring per perforating perforating perforating and loosening the soil and rendering it pervious to rains and the thc fibers of ot plants by drawing straws and stalks of leaves and twigs Into it and most of all by throwing up such infinite infinite infinite nite numbers of lumps of ot earth called which being their excrement excrement excrement ment Is a fine manure for fOI grain and grass Worms probably provide new nett soil for hills and slopes where the rain washes the earth away and they affect af affect affect slopes probably to avoid being flooded A good of ot worms would afford much entertain entertainment entertainment entertainment ment and information at the same time and would open a large and new field fieldIn fieldin In natural history Observations by Darwin The monograph on earthworms which Gilbert White desired to see appeared in 1896 from the fhe he pen of Charles Dar Darwin Darwin Darwin win in a small but important volume entitled The Formation of Vegetable Mold He shows that these worms have played a more Important part inthe in inthe inthe the history of the world than any anyone one would at first suppose In humid coun countries countries countries tries they are very numerous and for their size possess great leat muscular pow power power er so that the particles of ot the softer rocks are ground up in their gizzards and voided as castings c tl S which form the I fine black mold a few inches in depth covering the surface soil in nearly all ail I countries and imparting to it the high highest hIghest highest est natural degree of fertility Benefit of Earthworms In our Irrigated regions the benefit of the tho earthworm to the soil has been doubted do for the tho reason that the bur burrows burrows burrows rows made by b these animals allow more rapid evaporation so that the soil is made dry ry and also because the bur burrows burrows burrows rows admit water too readily during irrigation ir irrigation irrigation But in moist climates earth earthworms earthworms earthworms worms are arc very ery beneficial as ns well as asvery asvery very numerous In parts of England a weight of more than thaD ten tons of at dry earth annually passes pusses through their bodies and is brought to the surface on each acre of land so that the whole su superficial superficial superficial bed of the surface soil that is the whole of the vegetable mold passes through their bodies in the course of a n afew afew few years In France Frince near Nice the amount is from fourteen to eighteen tons per acre As the burrows collapse the soil constantly but slowly Improves Every burrow exposes fresh soil to the action of the carbonic acid in the soil and of ot the humus acids which appear to be still more efficient in the decomposition decomposition decomposition position of rocks Their Work Summarized I Angleworms consume so much earth it from the mere pleasure of eating that their bodies b dies are to be regarded as natures finer mills for the completion of the process Each country has no doubt several species Scandinavia is known to have eight These animals prefer the land but will live a long time if it kept in water They are nocturnal in habit crawling out at night probably to avoid heir enemies but sick individuals affected by the larva of a fly wander in the daytime as all do at the pairing season Any morning after a rain large numbers may be seen OLt I Having no sense of Ot direction they ICy get lost on hard pavements and often perish before they can find the earth again Probably for the sake of warmth they often lie near the surface of ot their burrows a habit that enables robins and blackbirds to procure large num numbers numbers numbers bers of them In winter they close their burrows the mouths of which they often coat with leaves They tun tunnel tunnel tunnel nel under every object on the land they may cause cause it to sink and will wil finally fi bury it beneath their castings Old massive walls elegant and tessel pavements ments etc have thus been preserved to the delight of 01 archaeologists archaeologists archaeologists It is a marvelous reflection writes Darwin that the whole of ot the superficial mold over oer any wide turf covered expanse has passed and will pass every few years through the bodies of ot worms The rhe plow is one of the most ancient and valuable of mans inventions but long lo g before he existed the land was in fact f cf regularly plowed and still sUll be thus thug plowed by earthworms Tire The work of ot the earthworm is more thorough than that I of the and Is carried on even even while the crops are growing These I concealed plowmen are constantly turning over the soil foot fot by foot and grain by grain til till it is in the best belt I for every purpose of agriculture Biology of the Worm W Worm rm The body of ot a large earthworm con consists consists consists of from to segments each bearing minute bristles that enable It to climb smooth surfaces It crawls cra ls backward as well as forward The Th |