[page] 1

Professor Darwin and the worms.

Darwin, in his latest work, estimates that there are in gardens 53,767 worms to the acre, and that they would weigh 356 ib. Having four or five gizzards a piece, each worm is able to digest a large amount of coarse food, and to bring 16 tons per acre to the surface per annum. Mr Darwin says that a field near his home has been cleared of cobble stones within his remembrance, and this not so much from the fact that the pebbles have been undermined, as because fine earth has been brought to the surface. Many od the foundation of Roman buildings recently discovered in Great Britain are preserved underneath this constantly accumulating deposit of "earth mold," which is from 2 feet to 3 feet deep over the ruins at Wroxeter.