The Potential of Natural Fertilizers

Organic fertilizer improves soil “tilth”—the condition, or health, of the soil. It is less likely to burn the lawn or leach down through the soil and into groundwater. It also provides a larger complement of minerals for plant growth.

However, natural fertilizers provide relatively low amounts of nutrients, as compared to concentrated fertilizers such as 10-10-10, so it will likely take more effort to incorporate them in your garden.

You also have to plan ahead because it takes time for bacteria and fungi to break down organic fertilizers into the nutrients that plants require. And organic fertilizers tend to be more expensive than conventional products.

Once you have your soil tested and bring nutrient levels up to adequate levels, add supplemental nutrients each year to replace the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium extracted by fast-growing vegetables.

Organic fertilizers, such as horse, cattle or poultry manure, dried blood, fish emulsion, or cottonseed meal, can replace the nitrogen used by plants if you apply adequate quantities each year. Apply them at planting time so nitrogen will be available to the vegetables during their peak nitrogen demand—from three to ten weeks after seeding.

Most Midwest soils contain some phosphorus. However, the amount may be inadequate to support rapidly growing vegetables. The most common organic sources of phosphorus include steamed bone meal, rock phosphate, and horse, cattle, or poultry manure.

Before carrying large quantities of organic potassium to your garden, have the soil tested. If the potassium level is above 300 pounds per acre, no additional potassium is required. If it is below that, use granite dust, greensand, wood ash, or horse, cattle, or poultry manure as a source of potassium.

No fertilizer will alleviate poor soil-building practices. So, be sure to supply your garden with generous amounts of compost to maintain organic matter in the soil and promote good plant growth.

Open Heart Surgery: a Matter of Life and Death

The miraculous duty of the heart, which throughout life pumps the blood with no interruption and sends unpurified blood to organs like lungs and kidneys where it is refined, is a clear source of contemplation and wonder for those who have any kind of awareness. However, some people encounter health problems connected with the heart and one of the remedies for some types of malfunction is open heart surgery.

Open heart surgery is performed after putting the patient to sleep under a general anesthetic. The chest is then opened by the surgeon, and the heart is temporarily bypassed or deactivated for the duration of surgery (although in some new techniques like beating heart surgery or minimal invasion heart surgery, the operation is possible without deactivation of the heart). During this period the functions of the heart are performed by an artificial lung mechanism called the heart-lung machine (cardiopulmonary bypass machine). Performing surgery on a working heart cases where there is no facility for beating heart surgery would be like trying to repair the engine of a car while it is in motion. This is why it is necessary to temporarily prevent the functions of the heart during the operation, which requires great care and accuracy.

Stopping the heart

During this procedure the patient is connected to the machine, venous blood being aspirated through cannuls through the right atrium into the heart-lung pump, while oxygenated blood is returned to the arterial circulation through a cannula in the ascending aorta. Preventing the function of the heart is not a very difficult process. When the heart-lung machine is activated and the blood is cooled and redirected into blood vessels, the body temperature is reduced to below 30⁰ C, and this lowers the heart rate and assists the heart to stop functioning. The actual stopping of the heart is performed by feeding a serum containing a concentrated solution of potassium ions into the coronary artery, which feeds the heart muscle. Potassium ions are normally found in the human body but in fixed proportion; potassium is an electrolyte which, if increased, causes defect in the heart's rhythm and may lead to ceasing the heart function. Feeding the coronary artery rapidly with rich potassium solution causes the heart to stop within a few seconds and allows the surgeon to perform operation on a non-functioning, motionless heart.

The heart should not be stopped from functioning for a long period, even if the heart-lung pump is performing the function of the heart successfully. Under normal conditions the pump cannot perform the whole duty of the actual heart and lungs. When the body temperature is reduced, there is reduction of functioning in many organs of the body to such an extent that they almost stop working, especially the brain.

Restarting the heart

To restart the heart following the operation a reversal of the procedure performed at the beginning of surgery is necessary; the body temperature is increased to 36.5-37⁰ C again with the help of the heart-lung pump, and at the same time the amount of potassium in blood is reduced to a normal level. This is usually executed by ensuring the normal function of kidneys which discard the potassium from the body. This is when the heart function is monitored closely because there is a reversal in the process of inducing low body temperature and the excess of potassium which caused the heart to stop. In other words, the barrier which stopped the flowing river is removed; therefore, according to the laws of physics, the trapped fluid should flow again at great speed, and although following surgery the majority of hearts do begin to function again when these procedures are performed, there is unfortunately no actual guarantee. There may be certain complications or even causes which we have not yet discovered, in which case an electric shock of 10-20 joules is delivered directly to the heart muscle to encourage it to function normally. If this is unsuccessful, medication such as adrenalin, which induces the functioning of the heart, is given to the patient. If, following these repeated procedures, there is no effect, and, regardless of all the effort, the heart does not function, then everything is performed again from the beginning, including the operation. But there is always the possibility that the desired result may not be achieved. Human beings always face the prospect of death in daily life, and although there is a very slim chance of death, with such a big operation there is always the possibility.

We are normally totally unaware of the rhythmic incidents, combination of great harmony, occurring within our bodies. Even breathing, a necessity for every living creature to stay alive, is not an action which we activate and continue on our own will. Sight, hearing, hunger and senses are acts of nature over which we have little direct will or power.