Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1886 — Nature’s Agriculturist. [ARTICLE]

Nature’s Agriculturist.

Prof. Henry Drummond remarks that there can be) no succession of crops without the most thorough agriculture, and that where man is not doing this work nature employs other agents. Darwin has shown how the soil of England is tilled by earthworms to the extent of having ten tons of dry earth per acre annually transferred from below to the surface, by passing through their bodies and being deposited as their casts. But in the hardbaked soil of tropical climates the worms are unable to operate, and other agencies are demanded, an effective one being, Prof. Drummond finds, the termite, or “white ant.” This creature lives upon dead vegetable matter, and its ’tunnelings, like the action of the earthworms, constantly bring fresh layers of soil to the surface. Unlike the earthworms, however, it is very destructive to man’s works, and in spite of its subsoil plowing is rather a dreaded foe than a valued friend.