Nature is full of these ironies. My favorite is that when bread and crackers
are exposed to the same environment, the bread becomes hard and the crackers
become soft!

Freshly baked bread is full of moisture, and a nice crisp cracker is dry.
After a while the bread loses its moisture and hardens, while the cracker
absorbs moisture and softens. Is this the moisture in the ground analogy you
are talking about?
73 Gary N4AST