FOUH MEDFOHD (OREGON)
Earthworm Gains Attention
As Fishing, Farming Begin
Washington Again with
spring at hand, people turn to
the earthworm as a lure for fish
and a fertilizer of gardens.
Sometimes called fishworms,
angleworms, nightcrawlers, dew
worms and rain worms, the
multitudinous wigglers have
served mankind since antiquity.
Cleopatra guarded the rich
Nile Valley worms as a state
secret. Naturalist Charles Dar
win doubted "whether there are
many other animals which have
played so important a part in
the history of the world as have
these lowly organized creatures."
Others have called them the
world's first plowmen, chemists,
irrigation systems and fertilizer
factories.
From burrow lacing the soil,
the worms venture to the surface
at night to feed pn decaying
plants and other organic mate
rial. Sometimes they drag the
provender underground to eat at
leisure. The digested product is
a black substance called earth-,
worm castings, a powerful nat
ural fertilizer. Some authorities
say that fruit and vegetables
grown in such enriched soil have
more flavor and often greater
size.
The worms' burrows help the
earth to hold air and moisture.
Upward of 50,000 earthworms
inhabit each acre, Darwin es
timated. Over 15 tons of soil per
acre may be brought to the sur
face each year by the untiring
"cultivators."
Earthworms came into commer
cial importance in recent years.
An Ohio fishing-tackle firm
recently ordered 25,000,000 lob
worms (lugworms that burrow in
sandy places) from England. Mil
lions of Egyptian worms have
been exposed to the United
States to fertilize soils. A Wash
ington, D. C., fishing hobbyist
decided to raise a few for his
fi AfclWEW"" Ww8y :;MMjimN!!rSuiu.L
SIEASEE
MAIN & FIR
MAIL TRIBUNE
personal use, later to find him
self in the earthworm business
with an inventory of 2,000,000
worms.
Student Selli Wormt
An Arlington, Va., resident
some years ago treated his bar
ren backyard with earthworm
castings. Today, tomato vines
climb almost to the eaves of his
bungalow. His flowers are the
envy of his neighbors.
A New York City student
earned his way through college
selling worms to anglers. A
"worm farm near Hereford, Eng
land, sold more than 1,000,000
specimens between last June and
September to fishermen seeking
trout, perch, roach and grayling.
The redder worms are, anglers
say, the more attractive they are
to fish.
To satisfy increasing demands,
worms often are packed in tins
with preparations that feed and
insulate them from, undue heat
and cold. Tins for individual fish
ermen may contain only a hund
red specimens. Huge commercial
shipments for fishing interests
and agriculturists move by truck
or train.
Worms Ai Food
Earthworms live in all parts
of the world where conditions
are favorable. They have been
found at 15,000-foot elevations in
the Andes Mountains. In Au
stralia worms sometimes grow 10
feet long as compared to the 10
inch whopper of the United
States. Some peoples, including
the Maoris of New Zealand, use
worms for food.
Twin-tailed African earth
worms have been raised at the
New York Zoological Park as
feed for duckbilled platypuses.
The double-tailed kind occurs
perhaps once among every 500
of the creatures. One of the
worms' outdoing its own kindred,
showed up with three tails.
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STREETS
Friday. April 20, 1956
Catfish Take Over
For Long-eared Mule
Paris, Tenn. CU.R) The balky,
long-eared mule used to have its
"day" here every spring, but
now the fat, tasty catfish has
taken over.
Farmers who came to town
every year to swap tales and
mules still come to town to
take part in the "world's biggest
fish frv."
The Fish fry all 3:000 pounds
of it helps publicize nearby
Kentucky Lake and its fine fish
ing, swimming and boating. It
will be on April 27.
Time was when the mule was
the workhorse of the farm and
king of the spring celebration
here. But farm machines began
to take the place of the mules,
and a couple of years ago it was
decided to make the catfish the
big attraction at the spring
gathering.
There will be lots of pretty
girls, bands, a parade, selection
of the "queen of the Tennessee
Valley" and a dance. Festivities
start the day of the fish fry and
continue the next day.
Also a big event is a 30-day
fishing rodeo on Kentucky Lake
with anglers out to pull in
bream, crappie, bass and other
species of fish, as well as the
catfish.
Bryant Williams, publisher of
the Paris Post-Intelligencer, is
president of the Chamber of
Commerce which sponsors the
event.
SOUP'S ON
Warren, O. (U.R) Restaurateur-
Pete Costianes filed a
$25,000 suit against Lloyd Cose,
who allegedly said "this soup is
slop," in front of other custom
ers. Costianes said the remark
was embarrassing, injured his
business and was untrue.
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EARLY GAME Senator Estes Kefauver, Democratic
presidential aspirant, takes in an early, 8 a.m game of
checkers at the 3uilding Trades Temple in San Francisco.
He is visiting California for the third time on a vote
getting tour of the state. His opponent at right is Emil
Josephson.
Men in Dormitory Relieve Boredom
Salt Lake City (U.R) Some
enterprising University of Utah
men's dormitory residents found
a way to relieve the boredom of
studies during the winter
months.
Although the jig is up now,
the residents of newly built Bal
lif Hall spent a month talking
long-distance to everybody from
Marilyn Monroe to Mom and Dad
at the university's expense.
The students found they could
get a direct line to a long dis
tance telephone operator by dial
ing certain numbers on the Bal
lif Hall telephone. Through what
was termed "mechanical failure,"
KMTI&
the boys started putting through
calls to' New York, the Russian
Embassy, a Las Vegas hotel and
virtually every state in the na
tion. One call to Miss Monroe
was noted.
At the end of the month, the
unusual size of the university's
phone bill prompted an investiga
tion that led to the men's dormi
tory and discovery of the "me
chanical failure" that allowed the
students to dial long distance.
The spree is over.
The nation's trucks move
more petroleum than any other
single commodity.
PHONE 3-4547
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