Viewegs Geschichte der Chemie

The plants of the DaR family originate directly and fundamentally from the element of water, as I learned from the following experiment: I took a clay vessel and poured in two hundred pounds of soil that I had previously dried in an oven. I watered it with rainwater and planted a willow sapling that weighed five pounds. Five years later, it had grown into a tree that weighed one hundred sixty-nine pounds and about three ounces. Only rain (or distilled water) was added. The large vessel was embedded in soil and covered on top with a galvanized iron plate that had many small holes. I did not weigh the leaves that fell during the four autumn seasons. Finally, I dried the soil in the vessel again and weighed it, finding it to be about the same two hundred pounds, though two ounces less. Thus, one hundred sixty-four pounds developed.