Dirt: the ecstatic skin of the earth

Description

"You are about to read a lot about dirt, which no one knows very much about." So begins the cult classic that brings mystery and magic to "that stuff that won't come off your collar." John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Saint Phocas, Darwin, and Virgil parade through this thought-provoking work, taking their place next to the dung beetle, the compost heap, dowsing, historical farming, and the microscopic biota that till the soil. With fresh eyes and heartfelt reverence, William Bryant Logan variously observes, "There is glamour to the study of rock"; "The most mysterious place on Earth is right beneath our feet"; and "Dirt is the gift of each to all."--Publisher description.;Clyde's pickup -- Part I: The ecstatic skin of the earth. Stardust ; The first soil ; Humus ; Saint Phocas as fertilizer ; Sweet and sour soils ; The sand drowns the sea, the sea takes the sand ; Virgin soil -- Part II: The matrix. Fire and ice ; Dirt ; The theory and practice of manuring ; John Adams's manure piles ; The compost man ; The soil of graves ; The dung beetle ; The almost perfect recipe -- Part III: On digging holes. Lessons in digging ; On digging holes ; Phalloi and calendars ; The hole to China -- Part IV: Earth and stone. Earthquakes and moonquakes ; The circulation of stone ; Old quarries ; The foundations of cathedrals ; Groundwater -- Part V: Clay alive. In a landscape of clays ; The theory of silt ; Crevice invasion ; Clay and life ; Kaolin ; The path of a clay crystal -- Part VI: In the dark. On gopher humps ; Of worms ; Perception in earthworms ; The pharmacy of molds -- Part VII: Human soil. The soil and the devil ; The soil apocalypse of George Perkins Marsh ; Husbandry in Rome ; Dio-He-Ko -- Part VIII: Visions of the soil. Underground horizons ; Wind and soil ; The soil man ; Into the pits ; The earth for Jefferson and Adams ; Stardust.