Meet the Earthworm

The red hybrid earthworm should not be confused with the everyday angleworm. The hybrid is a real moneymaker ... a superior type developed for commercial purposes. Today's red earthworms are larger than their ancestors: The normal length of a well-fed, full-grown specimen is 3—3-1/2 inches, and some are even bigger. The creature is very adaptable to widely varying climates and conditions and will not become restless and crawl away if it's provided with adequate food and moisture. Like the ordinary angleworm, the hybrid is bisexual ... each and every red wiggler has both male and female reproductive organs. It can—upon mating with another of its species—produce an egg capsule every seven to ten days. The capsules, in turn, each incubate in two or three weeks and release from two to twenty young. During the following 60—90 days, the newly hatched worms themselves mature to breeding age.This prolific wiggler sells far better to anglers than any other worm because it is tough and lively, stays on the hook and—with its bright red color—excites fish into biting faster. Gardeners are also anxious to buy the hybrid worms because—just like the common varieties from which they were developed—they've proven their worth in the vegetable patch. Earthworms are now recognized as highly effective natural agents for soil improvement and are especially helpful in loosening and aerating the ground. The little creatures initially perforate the top layers of earth and then gradually penetrate into the subsoil, where their burrows open passages for plant root growth. The worms also eat soil and organic debris and the resulting droppings or "castings" are a valuable fertilizer in finely granulated form. H.A. Lunt and H.G.M. Jacobson of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station have made very thorough chemical analyses of earthworm castings and uneaten soil collected from the top six inches of a field. They report that the casts contained about five times as much nitrate, seven times as much available phosphorus, three times as much exchangeable magnesium, eleven times as much potash and one and a half times as much lime (calcium) as the plain dirt. The increases came from the organic material consumed and digested by the worms. Earthworm castings are, in short, one of the finest organic fertilizers available. They can be purchased from some nurseries and at almost any worm farm ... and if you're going into the business of raising red hybrids yourself, you may want to take advantage of this profitable sideline.