Clay is collected from clay patches, a light-brown colored dried cracked looking terrain often found near water. Each deben of clay collected requires one jug of water which will be emptied of water when the clay is gathered.
Flint has a 1 in 20 chance of being found when collecting clay.
Flint may also be found while mining.
Grass is collected on grassy terrain. Each click of the grass icon gives you one deben of grass; you then need to move slightly to collect grass again. An easy way to collect grass is to set your gait to "walk" (Emote/Gait: Walk), and walk slowly across a large grassy area. Click the grass icon every time it appears.
The skill "rhythmic strength" will double the amount of grass collected per click, if you are carrying a scythe and a papyrus basket.
The easiest way to collect grass is to build several greenhouses. Over the course of thirty minutes, a greenhouse will produce 100 debens of grass.
Mud is found by water. One click on the mud icon will gather as much mud as you desire.
Sand is collected on sandy terrain. One click on the sand icon will gather as much sand as you desire.
Silt is found in small piles on the ground near water, usually near bridges. Each pile contains 10 debens of silt.
Slate is occasionally found by water. Run or walk around next to any body of water (if you can see the mud icon, you are close enough), and the orange slate icon will occasionally appear. If you run past a spot with slate, you can come back and it will still be there- unless you have collected slate or gold since seeing it.
Gold is similar to slate but much less common- near a body of water the blue gold panning icon will rarely appear. You must have a perception of one for the gold icon to ever appear. In order to collect it, you must have a lead pan in inventory and have a perception of 7. If you run past a spot with gold, you can come back and it will still be there- unless you have collected slate or gold since seeing it.
Straw is produced by drying grass. The simplest way to dry grass is to drop it: after a brief period of time, it will change color and turn into straw. (The more grass you drop in a pile, the longer it will take to dry; piles of 10-15 grass seem to work well.)
Grass may also be dried in drying racks or flax hammocks, which work faster than dropping it on the ground.
Thorns are collected from thorn bushes, a small plant with pink coloring. On each harvest, a thorn bush will produce a random quantity of thorns; it must then be left alone for one minute before it will produce more thorns.
White Sand is collected on white sand terrain. This terrain is rare, and appears bright white. One click on the sand icon while on this terrain will gather as much white sand as you desire. White sand has very few uses, all of them rather high on the technology tree, and thus is not required for many people.
Wood is harvested from trees. Different types of trees will produce between 1 and 14 wood. (Certain trees look exactly like 10-wood trees, but produce only 4 wood; take care.) After harvesting, a tree must be left alone for one minute before it will produce more wood.
Clear cutting will gather mass amounts of wood from one tree. After being clearcut the tree must be left alone for 7 days to recover. The skill clear cutting is required to clear cut trees. The yield amount of the tree when being picked determines how much wood you get from clearcutting the tree. Example: If you clear cut a 4-wood tree then you will be able to clearcut the tree for a total of 500 wood.
Also carrying a axe with you while collecting wood will yield higher quantities of wood each pick.