Time and the Tree 21 



we sooner or later arrive at the center — the soil. 

 Tell me the soil and I will describe its owner. It 

 is his alter ego. Dust we are and back to dust we 

 go, and while we live we are keepers of the dust. 

 Yet all do not seem to know this. May we not 

 assume that as soon as there was opportunity for 

 soil on the earth man appeared? He is the only 

 animal that makes soil and deliberately gets his 

 living from it. Not only does he look before and 

 after, he is the soil-maker. If you will but weigh 

 this against his other creations, you will discover 

 that it is his most important contribution to his 

 own civilization. ''Oh that mine enemy would 

 write a book!'' exclaims the hungry critic. **0h 

 that my friend would transform land into soil!" 

 exclaims the hungry man. The high cost of living 

 means the low production of soil. 



But the earth has its seasons like the sky, and 

 the laboratory of the soil is more active at some 

 seasons than at others. I once knew a farmer who 

 planted corn while sitting in slippers, in a rocking- 

 chair, on the porch, reading the New York Evan- 

 gelist, He did not get enough from his cornfield 

 to renew his subscription to the paper. Another 

 farmer I knew raised record crops of corn and could 

 not read or write. The ancient Lake- Dwellers, 

 on Lake Geneva, raised wheat. I have seen their 

 wheat, — ^black, oxidized grains sealed in a bottle 

 in the De Candolle Collection; but the Lacustrines 

 sang their songs like Homer; they never bothered 

 themselves with reading or writing. They raised 



