The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms: With Observations on Their HabitsDarwin, Charles
Science
The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms: With Observations on Their Habits
Darwin, Charles
Earthworms; Humification; Soils
With respect to the tower-like castings near Nice (Nos. 5 and 6 in the
above table), Dr. King often found five or six of them on a square foot
of surface; and these, judging from their average weight, would have
weighed together 7½ ounces; so that the weight of those on a square yard
would have been 4 lb. 3½ oz. Dr. King collected, near the close of the
year 1872, all the castings which still retained their vermiform shape,
whether broken down or not, from a square foot, in a place abounding with
worms, on the summit of a bank, where no castings could have rolled down
from above. These castings must have been ejected, as he judged from
their appearance in reference to the rainy and dry periods near Nice,
within the previous five or six months; they weighed 9½ oz., or 5 lb. 5½
oz. per square yard. After an interval of four months, Dr. King
collected all the castings subsequently ejected on the same square foot
of surface, and they weighed 2½ oz., or 1 lb. 6½ oz. per square yard.
Therefore within about ten months, or we will say for safety’s sake
within a year, 12 oz. of castings were thrown up on this one square foot,
or 6.75 pounds on the square yard; and this would give 14.58 tons per
acre.
In a field at the bottom of a valley in the chalk (see No. 2 in the
foregoing table), a square yard was measured at a spot where very large
castings abounded; they appeared, however, almost equally numerous in a
few other places. These castings, which retained perfectly their
vermiform shape, were collected; and they weighed when partially dried, 1
lb. 13½ oz. This field had been rolled with a heavy agricultural roller
fifty-two days before, and this would certainly have flattened every
single casting on the land. The weather had been very dry for two or
three weeks before the day of collection, so that not one casting
appeared fresh or had been recently ejected. We may therefore assume
that those which were weighed had been ejected within, we will say, forty
days from the time when the field was rolled,—that is, twelve days short
of the whole intervening period. I had examined the same part of the
field shortly before it was rolled, and it then abounded with fresh
castings. Worms do not work in dry weather during the summer, or in
winter during severe frosts. If we assume that they work for only half
the year—though this is too low an estimate—then the worms in this field
would eject during the year, 8.387 pounds per square yard; or 18.12 tons
per acre, assuming the whole surface to be equally productive in
castings.
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