Creation at this time, peopled as it was by primal deities whose whole energy and purpose seems to have been directed towards reproduction, was endowed with an astonishing fertility. The soil was blessed with such a fecund richness that one could almost believe that if you planted a pencil it would burst into flower.

Dust rises at every step, fine as flour. It is dried river silt, that dust. Add water, and the soil is so fertile that you could plant a pencil and harvest a book.

The richest soil that was ever prepared would not grow a single blade of grass or the tiniest Weed if that soil were absolutely dry. ...There must be water in the soil to dissolve out and transfer its elements in order that the rootlets of the plant shall be able to make the slightest use of these elements. ...But ...a plant may grow and thrive for a time quite without the presence of soil if its roots are placed in water. ... some of the richest soils in the world are those that are absolutely barren and fully merit the designation of desert lands because water is lacking

Since the earth can yield its cultivator more then he needs for his own subsistence, the surplus can be appropriated by another class. Thus creating an eco system of abundant resources that is expandable.

The rich scent of well-balanced soil was like incense.

May I exchange T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland
with the future of this earth like a lunatic’s dreams
and make one season of poetry farming
by tilling with the pen of desire.

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

There's nothing like a shovel full of dirt to encourage literacy.

Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soil.

who needs soil when there's water? The idea of growing food in water dates back, at least, to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. But hydroponics, the growing of food in a nutrient-rich solution, is a more modern development.

The human mind is like a fertile ground were seed are continually being planted. The seeds are opinions, ideas, and concepts. You plant a seed, a thought grows, and it grows. The word is like a seed and the human mind is so fertile!

What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.

The soil of our mind contains many seeds, positive and negative. We are the gardeners who identify, water, and cultivate the best seeds.

Friends, the soil is poor, we must sow seeds in plenty for us to garner even modest harvests.