The Native Soil is a science fiction short story by American author Alan E. Nourse, first published in 1957. 

A drug company troubleshooter is sent to Venus to increase production from the antibiotic mining project.

The world's entire surface is mud and the native semi-intelligent mudpups have a knack for doing the wrong thing at exactly the right time.

Alan Edward Nourse (1928-1992) was an American science fiction author and physician. He wrote both juvenile and adult science fiction, as well as nonfiction works about medicine and science. His SF works generally focused on medicine and/or psionics. Psionics refers to the practice, study, or psychic ability of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis, and other workings of the outside world through the psyche.

His novel The Bladerunner lent its name to the Blade Runner movie, but no other aspects of its plot or characters, which were taken from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?