A whole new world has opened to the school-goers of our days, chiefly through the communications revolution. So much so that in many houses it is the youngsters of 10 years who can best manipulate or fix, if necessary, the baleful machine squeaking and blinking in the corner of the living-room. But the modern and revolutionary can be used to explain to us the even greater, and often more inscrutable miracles that have surrounded man since he began to reckon time. Which is to say that when the Tree Council of Ireland planned this year's campaign for raising the consciousness of young folk to the significance of trees in our lives, they circulated to all primary schools in the country an illustrated bi-lingual teaching pack, covering a vast range about trees and tree-related topics in CD Rom format. And full colour posters of trees will be (or have been) circulated. Today, Tree Day, in 107 sites, named guides stand ready to conduct the young (or not so young) around suitable wooded sites.
There are wonders, not all of which, perhaps, have been quite appreciated, in the world of trees which existed long before Marconi and Bill Gates. For example, Ralph Whitlock in his book The Oak (George Allen and Unwin) draws our attention to the phenomenon that on a sunny summer day the large oak in his area, the Chetham Oak, may have to convey more than 100 gallons of water perhaps a vertical distance of 100 feet to its topmost leaves. Why? Well, he argues, the leaves breathe in air and exhale oxygen, and through their pores lose water by transpiration. Hence, water has to be sucked up through the roots, trunks, branches and twigs. A process he compares to that of a vacuum pump.
In Hugh Johnson's International Book of Trees (Mitchell Beazley) he mentions "a particularly happy-looking ivy" on the walls of Magdalen College, Oxford, which turned out to have got its roots into the cellar and drunk a whole barrel of port!
A simple demonstration in the classroom, given here before, may convert young people to a healthy interest in the secrets of Nature. An acorn, point down, is balanced on top of a Ballygowan bottle filled with ordinary tap water, which is constantly kept in touch with the acorn. The pupils will see the roots slowly break out and grow until they touch, or nearly so, the bottom. In spring, the soft green sprout of the tree itself will emerge. Watch the leaves develop. Then transfer the seedling into a pot of compost; the following year putting it into the earth. It will grow faster than you think. Curiosity leads us on. Y