The heavens declare the glory of God the skies proclaim the work of his hands'

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The heavens declare the glory of God the skies
proclaim the work of his hands. Ps 191-4
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EARTHWORMS Lumbricus terrestris "It may be
doubted whether there are many other creatures
which have played so important a part in the
history of the world." Charles Darwin, 1881
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The humble earth-worm is much more
than bait for fish hooks Earthworms are highly
specialized creatures. They seem obviously
designed for their impor- tant task of burrowing
through soil. They burrow into the ground in
nearly all parts of the world, and make an
important contribution to the fer- tilization,
aeration and drainage of the soil.
Earthworms drag organic material from the surface
into the ground. They also swallow huge amounts
of earth, digest the nutritive matter it
contains, then cast up the remains on to the
surface of the ground or in their burrows. In
this way they work at a constant and effective
system of plowing, which enriches and oxygenates
the soil. An average acre may house 3 million
earthworms, which can move about 18 tons of soil
per year.
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Nobody knew what had spooked em, but suddenly
Jake found himself caught up in the great
earthworm stampede of 1887.
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As soil full of organic matter passes through the
earth-worm, it is metabolized into rich castings
(manure) that nourish plants. When earth-worms
burrow through soil, they make tunnels that bring
air and water to plant roots.
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The earthworm is nature's plough providing the
finest fertilizer for plants. In every way, the
earthworm surpass-es anything man has yet
invented to plough, to culti-vate or to fertilize
the soil.
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The diversity of microbes in earthworm manure
protects against soil disease. The humus in
vermicompost holds in and increases availability
of plant nutrients, helps control plant diseases
and stimulates healthy plant growth.
Vermicompost helps the soil drink in and hold
water.
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We're underground farmers who turn the soil over
like a plough. In just one acre there can be a
million or more of us, eating 10 tons of leaves,
stems, and dead roots a year and turning over 40
tons of soil. Imagine us all over the world --
billions and billions of earthworms, tunneling
through soil, chewing up fallen leaves and
ani-mal remains, pushing heavy stones. And
don't forget excrement! Ours is called castings
it contains the recycled nutrients from the
debris we ate. Our tunnels add air and our
castings, fer-tilizer. We literally change the
dirt under human's feet!
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Gardeners, farmers, foresters and soil scientists
all love the earthworm because of the good they
do for flowers, crops, and plants and animals of
the forest. They are active animals and feed by
bring-ing organic debris into their burrows from
the surface and by eating their way through the
soil.
The dead leaves and animals they digest
contains nutrients made by plants
dur-ing photosynthesis and includes calcium,
nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, and organic
minerals and nutrients from dead animals. Their
excrement is deposited on the surface and is rich
in nutrients, providing food for other animals
and microorgan-isms. This organic material is
further broken down by microor-ganisms of the
soil, releasing nutrients in a form available for
absorption by plants.
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In this way, earthworms help produce the fertile
humus that covers the land. As a result the
layers of soil are thoroughly mixed, seeds are
covered and enabled to germinate, and over long
periods of time stones and other objects on the
surface are buried. This process has even buried
and preserved ancient buildings. Each year
earthworm castings cover each acre with as much
as 18 tons of rich soil. When earthworms die,
usually in the dry summer, the organic material
making up their bodies is gradually released
provid-ing additional nutrients for plants. These
minerals are essential to healthy plant growth.
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the tunnels earthworms make beneath the topsoil
do a tremendous service to the trees and plants
above. Their burrow-ing aerates the soil, which
is why earth-worms are called "nature's plough".
They not only help bring oxygen down into the
soil, but their tunnels allow rainwater carrying
organic and inorganic nutrients down deep into
the soil where the roots lie. The roots then take
up the water and minerals and recycle them back
to the plants and woody trees.
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Want to know how we little critters can do all
that? Let me give you a lesson in
earthwormology!
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Mouth We can open them wide to fit leaves and
other good things. But we don't have teeth! Here
is what happened to my lunch Pharynx I push
my pharynx or throat out of my mouth to grab
leaves and to pull them back into my mouth. Then
I get them nice and wet with my saliva.
Esophagus Once I have my food good and wet, I
push it down my esophagus, then onto my crop.
Crop My crop is a storage compartment for my
food and other things I swallow. From the crop,
my lunch goppes to my gizzard.
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Gizzard My gizzard is where the work happens. I
use any stones that I've swallowed and the strong
muscles of my gizzard to grind up the leaves.
These muscles work almost like teeth.
Intestine Once I have the leaves all ground
up they move to my intestine where the digestive
juices break them down even more. Bloodstream
Now that the leaf is all digested, some of it
will pass into my bloodstream. Rear Whatever
is leftover comes out as castings.
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An interesting job of the worm is to make
fertilizer. If there are 500,000 worms living in
an acre of soil, they could make 50 tons of
cast- ings. That's like lining up 100,000 one
pound coffee cans filled with castings. The
same 500,000 worms burrowing into an acre of
soil can create a drainage system equal to
2,000 feet of 6-inch pipe. Pretty amazing for
just a little old worm!
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In one acre of land, there can be more
than a million earthworms. Worms tunnel deeply
in the soil and bring subsoil closer to the
surface mix- ing it with the topsoil.
Slime, a secretion of earthworms, contains
nitrogen. Nitrogen is an important
nutrient for plants. The sticky slime helps
to hold clusters of soil particles
together. Worms can eat their weight each day.
90 of the leaves that fall from orchard
trees are dragged into the soil by
earthworms.
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Worm casts are manufactured in the ali-
mentary canal of the earthworm from dead
vegetable matter and particles of soil, and
contain everything the crop needs...
nitrates, phosphates, and potash in
abundance and also in just the con- ditions
in which the plant can make use of them.
Recent investigations in the U. S. show
that the fresh casts of earth- worms are 5
times richer in available nitrogen, 7 times
richer in available phosphates and 11 times
richer in avail- able potash than the upper
6inches of soil. The earthworm, therefore,
is the gardener's manure factory.
-("Organic Gardening", May, 1944)-
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In the body of the earthworm we find a
complete, high-speed humus factory,
combining all the processes (both
mechanical and chemical) for turning out
the finished product, topsoil, prop- erly
conditioned for best root growth and
containing in rich proportion, and in
water-soluble form, all the elements
required of the earth for plant nutrition.
Charles Darwin, who discovered the great
importance of earthworms, stated that
vegetation in many parts of the world would
be eliminated without the helpful benefits
of the earthworm.
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Most are found in the top 5 inches of soil.
Their work is so thorough that in the areas
in which they live almost all the soil to a
depth of many centimeters has passed through
the alimentary tract (gut) of an earthworm
at some time.
Charles Darwin wrote a whole book on worms.
He noted that objects on the surface of
soil, such as stones and arch- aeological
relics, sink into the ground as they are
buried by worm casts. At the rate he
measured, in 1,000 years, an object could
end up being about 18 ft. underground by
this mechanism alone.
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Can evolution explain the earthworms activities
of loosening, stirring up and aerating the soil
to make it more fertile?
A more reasonable explana-tion is that it was
planned, designed, and created to be a willing,
if humble, servant of the plant world by helping
to sustain the balance of all other life on the
earth.
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LETS LOOK AT A VIDEO OF ONE OF THE SYSTEMS OF
THE HUMAN BODY . . . WATCH CAREFULLY TO SEE IF
THE SYSTEM SHOWS COMPLEX, INTELLIGENT DESIGN.
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The heavens declare the glory of God the skies
proclaim the work of his hands. Ps 191-4
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