Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest. – Douglas William Jerrold, about Australia, A Land of Plenty

The home gardener is part scientist, part artist, part philosopher, part ploughman. – John R. Whiting

Be it deep or shallow, red or black, sand or clay, the soil is the link between the rock core of the earth and the living things on its surface. It is the foothold for the plants we grow. Therein lies the main reason for our interest in soils. – Roy Simonson, USDA Yearbook of Agriculture, 1957