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I may be wrong. But I believe the earthworm is the only worm carrying 'earth' on its name. The Real Owner of this Earth. Indeed! As a child I've noticed my friends digging the earth and scrounging for these earth worms. They would collect a handful of such worms and put them in a polythene bag. They would put some mud along with the caught worms to ensure that the 'friends' of farmers' remain earthly till their last journey. Of course their last journey would be in bits and pieces. As we reached the lake/pond the fishing rod would be taken out. The hook was taken out and now the fingers search and get one worm and with the fingers' help a small piece of about a centimeter or an inch would be detached from the live worm. The sight of piercing through the hook of the cut piece would be a hoary sight. But once the bait for the fish is ready the hook is thrown into the lake and the observation for the arrival of the innocent fish who were going to be caught and fried.
Other than this when we do the earth work any where in the villages they were in plenty. The soil was fertile as each home had at least 5-50 cattle heads providing manure for the farm lands. We had lot of trees too and the branches would be pruned and the foliage filling the tilled fields. Apart from these hundreds of goats would arrive from the neighboring arid districts and the 'shepherds' collecting paddy or money for making a night halt for the goats in the fields. The dung and the urine energized the earth and the soil remained flexible and would absorb and retain water. Today the paddy fields are virtual chemical laboratories and the plants refuse to grow without the scent of Urea, Di- ammonia phosphate and other chemicals. Then comes the liberal dose of pesticides. Indians had a taste of the deadliness of these poisonous pesticides only in 1984 when the methyl isocyanide leaked in the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal and 5000 people losing their lives and a half million still suffering with the aftereffects. The continuous use of pesticides and poisonous harmful chemicals and the intense mechanization of farming works have limited the population of earth worms.
However we forget these earth worms can help us in compost preparations as these friends can quicken the process of decay. Instead of purchasing chemicals as manure for home gardens, one can easily grow them at home. An old pot or wooden box is sufficient. Fill them with cow dung, hay or any bio-degradable materials any organic waste. The kitchen is waste is sufficient. Keep the pot damp always. In weeks you see the worms multiply in plenty.
Once they are in your garden pots they would do wonders. The same process can be done in a big way too. In fact when we take the manure once a year for farming from our I would be travelling towards the coal formation ideas. Village compost yards follow no techniques. The wasted hay/straw, foliage, kitchen waste, and the cow dung collected every day (twice) reaches the same spot and grows as a heap. The water content in the dung and frequent rains provide a natural environment for the growth of these earthly worms who convert these waste into wealth.
Why Worms?
Darwin’s work on worms during his latter years also reflected his interest in processes that, acting slowly and gradually over time, have a huge impact. The habits of earthworms do just this. As Darwin wrote ‘worms have played a more important part in the history of the world than most persons would at first suppose’.
To uncover how they play this role Darwin threw himself at his worm studies with as much childlike enthusiasm as he could muster; he was, until the day he died, eager to learn and full of ideas to help him do so. He set about a series of experiments to test the senses of worms; he had his children play instruments to them, his wife (who was trained by Chopin) played the piano to an audience of worms, light was shone on them, and they were vibrated, blown on and tickled. His conclusions:
‘Worms do not possess any sense of hearing. They took not the least notice of the shrill notes from a metal whistle, which was repeatedly sounded near them: nor did they of the deepest and loudest tones of a bassoon. They were indifferent to shouts, if care was taken that breath did not strike them. When placed on a table close to the keys of a piano, which was played as loudly as possible, they remained perfectly quiet’
Darwin measured how much material they would ingest (eat), and how much they egested (pooped). He estimated how many worms there were on average in a given amount of soil, showing that all the soil in Britain ‘has passed many times through and will again pass many times through, the intestinal canals of worms’.
The rate at which worms process the soil can explain how ancient ruins are buried: Darwin calculated that worms push up eight tonnes of earth through the casts at the entrances of their burrows. He even carried out experiments to show this could happen within a human lifetime, he laid a stone in his garden, which was not to be disturbed, and measured the rate at which the earth was raised around it.
Darwin showed for the first time that worms increase the fertility of soils by aerating and mixing rotting material, this allows better root growth and water retention. By doing so he revolutionised compost heaps everywhere!
Insight Strikes Again.
Since Darwin’s work on earthworms their importance in natural ecosystems is now widely recognised. Research scientists continue to work on earthworms, for example a large group of scientists at the University of Central Lancashire work on earthworms, their biology, history, use and behaviour.
But another worm (actually a nematode), Caenorhabdtis elegans, has become one of the key work horses for biologists. Their development is known in immense detail - the fate of every cell produced during development is known, and the sequence of the complete genome is known. They are used to investigate how bodies develop, how they differ between species, how they evolve, and how behaviour evolves.
Written by Stephen Montgomery
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