From A. H. Kepley 20 February 1882
Effingham Illinois. U.S.
Feb. 20th 1882,
Chas. Darwin,
Dear Sir
Hoping I do not intrude, I send you an item concerning “earth worms”, bearing upon some discussions I now see concerning their alleged habit, of eating the roots of pot plants and injuring them by their acid excrements.1 I have had many house plants for years, and have kept my plants in unglazed, and glazed ware, in iron, in tin, and wood, have used garden soil, leaf mould chip dirt, and well rotted manure to enrich the same, and in which as far know earth worms abound I have used no drainage by piling pot sherds, charcoal gravel &c, in bottom of pots, sometimes I have not even had a hole in the vessel.
I never bake the earth, always have worms in the pots, and never believed they were injurious to plants, have talked with women, who laid fallens2 to worms, but it could usually be traced to poor light, bad watering or high temperature, If I can have good light, proper temperature, good air, and water carefully, not too much nor too little, my plants will grow. I have grown all the ordinary house plants and some that are not ordinary, and with success, I think the worms do not hurt the plants.
I notice if there is some under the pots, they are fond of going out of the hole at the bottom, and making a sort of nest or bed
Very respectfully | Ada H. Kepley
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
An experienced keeper of house plants assures CD that earthworms do not injure roots.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13693
- From
- Ada Harriet Miser/Ada Harriet Kepley
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Effingham, Ill.
- Source of text
- DAR 169: 7
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13693,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13693.xml