carbon dioxide, which forms bubbles. These bubbles act like little
plugs and, as they rise, push the intervening packets of water, sap,
etc, ahead of them, pumping the water with the nutrients and the
sap right up to the furthest extremities of the crown.
The sap rises during the day when the tree exhales oxygen
through photosynthesis. When the Sun sets and the temperature
drops, this process is reversed as it breathes in oxygen to help build
up the root system and the trunk of the tree. Nightfall initiates the
retreat of the sap, which becomes denser through cooling and is
drawn towards the root-zone. The capillaries in the crown of the
tree are evacuated, creating a partial biological vacuum as the CO 2
gas-bubbles condense and begin to sink (see Fig. 15.6).
The CO 2 , nitrogen, oxygen, starches, sugars, and trace gases
formed during daytime photosynthesis are drawn down through the
minute stomata and pores in the leaves, down the trunk, some of
them reaching the hair-roots. Their purpose here is to nourish the
life-functions of the tree during the night and provide the material
for building the structure of the inner fabric of the tree as a whole.
As the crown and the trunk cool down, the root-zone warms up and
the opposite happens to what took place during the day. This keeps
the soil warm during the night and in winter, and cooler during the
day and in summer. The ground temperature in this way is prevented
from overcooling or overheating, greatly benefiting the micro-organ-
isms in the humus.
Light-demanding trees are able to work in the same way because
they have thick bark or, in some cases, a light-coloured bark with a
high reflective factor to protect them from the greater heat and light
which would interfere with this delicately balance metabolic
process.
The cambium layer (see Fig. 15.4, p. 204) is the active zone where
the growth of the tree takes place through the interaction of two
electrically charged fluids. The negatively charged phloem contain-
ing oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, etc, flows down the inner side
of the dielectric, while the positively charged xylem, containing ion-
ized minerals, salts, trace-elements, carbonic acid or CO 2 , flows up
the outside. Between these two streams and through their interac-
tion, the proto-annual ring is transformed into a proper annual
ring. The life history of the tree is imprinted on these annual rings.
Fig. 15.3 (opposite). Rising sap
experiment.
The constant pulsation in the capillary tube
mimics the principle of rising sap in the tree, just
like the pulsation that causes blood circulation in
the body (a propos of which Schauberger also said
'There is no condition of equilibrium in
Nature').- THE METABOLISM OF THE TREE