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