What this demonstration shows is how important worms are to the general heath of the soil. The visible smoke coming out of the holes shows worm density, which in turn would indicate an aerobic soil with lots of oxygen and active respiration for soil biology. This particular field is a fellow NAT member TiminIN who put on the field day. The worm holes were on average about 3" apart, as verified by smoke. And generally, this is only seen in no-tilled soils. Frank mentioned trying to do the same demonstration in tilled soils and not getting any, or very poor results (smoke escaping up through soil ) which would indicate a somewhat anaerobic condition. This depends quite a lot on the soil type as well.... In fact, his story (frank's) Tuesday was of hooking up the rig to a tile for a farmer in Ohio. Try as they might, they could not get any smoke to come up. The farmer swore right & left.....that he was all no-till corn & beans for many years. That is......until he remembered that he had disced the field once prior to seeding wheat. That single tillage event sealed the soil and the worms did not return. I don't know how long it was after the discing , that they tried the smoke. |