A time will come, when fields will be manured with a solution of glass (silicate of potash), with the ashes of burnt straw, and with the salts of phosphoric acid, prepared in chemical manufactories, exactly as at present medicines are given for fever and goitre.
Justus von Liebig (1842). “Chemistry in its applications to agriculture and physiology: By Justus Liebig. Edited from the manuscript of the author by Lyon Playfair”, p.176
