What is Green and Full of Worms?

This diary, although pretty informative, is just to get your minds off West Virginia for a minute.

Ireland has about 7 million cattle, and although the cows are owned privately, it is called, and protected by the government, as the "National Herd." 7 million cows are a lot and they eat a huge amount of grass between March 17th, when the cows come out of the barn, and about November 15th when they go back in. In between fields are cut for silage to provide feed during the winter months.
As a by-product, those 7 million cows produce 9+ tons of cow waste EACH per year. That's 63 million tons of poop per year, or beneficially 63 million tons of fertilizer per year, all automatically, regularly and unmechanically neatly spread over the fields of grass.
Seen from the air Ireland is the greenest island imaginable. It is not only the fertilizer that makes that happen, but Ireland has zillions of wiggly earthworms that can't wait for the poop to hit the ground. It is estimated that the lowly Irish earthworm provides over 700 million Euros of work each and every year in biodiversity work, removing dead matter and releasing nutrients back into the soil to make even more green grass, in cattle production.
If one adds crop production and tillage, the government estimates they provide 1 Billion Euros of work for the economy. The cattle and the earthworms have made Ireland's soil the richest in all Europe.
So next time you fly over Ireland and Ooo! and ahh! over the very greenness of it, remember that just underneath all that grass are zillions of tireless little Irish workers keeping it all growing well.
Until the arrival of the steam engine, ships required a massive amount of wood in their construction and for the masts. Ireland was once densely forested, but all the trees were cut down in the era of the sailing ships, and Ireland is just now starting to replace those mighty forests. The first crops have been mostly Spruce, which is being used in wood pellet production, which is helping replace the burning of coal and peat. You would be amazed how quickly the trees grow in this soil and with the amount of rain we have. Ireland is now moving to replace the old forests utilizing a large variety of trees just as the forests once stood. Soon we hope you won't see quite as much grass, but underneath it all will still be the lovely worms doing their work and making it all happen.