From Amy Ruck to Horace Darwin [20 January 1872]1
Pantlludw, | Machynlleth.
Dear Horace
I am afraid I have nothing worth telling about worms. I have been rather in despair this seems such a bad country for them as a “worm casting” is quite a rare sight even on our croquet ground where one might expect to see them, there is very few. Atty2 declares there are a dozen moles to every worm here— However on the top of the Hill there are some steep slopes ploughed about 50 or 60 years ago & we have done some digging & measuring there with these results— the furrows going chiefly crossways—
![diagram](/sites/default/files/dcp_lett_8168.jpg)
We found that the fine soil at the top of the slope was always shallower, being in the furrows at the top 2 inches, at the bottom 4; & that there was always about half an inch difference in the depth of the soil in the ridge & in the furrow, that in the furrow being deepest. We tried a good many times & always found this difference—
It is rare to find furrows running down a slope, but we came across a few in a basin, last ploughed during the Peninsular War—& there they almost disappeared at the bottom—the depth of the furrow between the ridges being at the top 4in. at the bottom 1in.3 Papa says, there is a place near his old home Newington called ‘Worm Dale, where they do wonders—4 Dicky & Lenny5 might go & look at it.
My thanks to you for wading through this. | ARR.
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.
Summary
Describes the occurrence of earthworms and the signs of earthworm activity in the neighbourhood.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8168
- From
- Amy Richenda (Amy) Ruck/Amy Richenda (Amy) Darwin
- To
- Horace Darwin
- Sent from
- Machynlleth
- Source of text
- DAR 176: 221
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp † (by CD)
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8168,” accessed on 27 July 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8168.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 20