"It lies as far as the eye can see. It covers millions and millions of acres around the globe, yet it is a rare thing and cannot be replaced.
This soil is a living thing. Yet it can be destroyed. This soil is a fruitful thing. Yet it can be sterile. This soil is God's gift to mankind, given unto our stewardship. Yet it can be spoiled and wasted. This soil produces crops and verdant grasses and trees. It cannot be supplicated by chemistry or physics. This soil is an intricate house of myriad elements. Yet it is so commonplace as to be known as dirt.
It fills the flowerpot in Manhattan, serves as a garden in Minnesota and produces an orchard in California- this thing called soil.
It is the spectacle of the Grand Canyon, the flatness of the Plains, and the rolling convolution of the Shenandoah Valley- this thing called soil.
It is the source of our nourishment; it provides the means of our protection.
God has willed we can live with it; we cannot live without it. Consider this soil. Consider it well."
' A good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens' children. "
Proverbs 13:22
The people who are in charge of this resource, soil, are called farmers. When a person thinks of the word "farm" they usually think of it as a place where vegetables are grown, cows are milked, and hens lay eggs. But how is it, in that case that "to farm out" anything means to rent or lease it for a certain period at a fixed price?
Independent, September 20, 1928:
"The word "farm" is really very interesting. In its earliest meaning it had nothing to do with vegetables or cows or hens. It meant, according to Webster's New International Dictionary, "sum fixed in amount and payable at fixed intervals by way of rent, tax or the like". A farm then, was originally a sum of money, paid as rent.
The next step in the history of this work brings to mind the "farming" of revenues or taxes. It came to mean the practice of letting out taxes for a fixed amount to someone authorized to collect and keep them.
The present meaning of the word begins to appear when a "farm" was a district of country or section of land leased or farmed out for the collection of government revenues. Then, logically following from this, a farm was any piece of land leased for the purposes of cultivation. Today it is possible for a farmer to own his farm, of course, and still call it a farm. It now means any piece of land used for agricultural purposes."
What about the person whose task it is to care for this plot of land? From the publication, 'Call of the West' which was published in 1908 we have this article
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 91