INTEGRAL TREES GROW WELL IN A WIDE RANGE OF TIDES. LOW ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE KILLS THEM PASTER THAN LOW OR HIGH TIDE. IN DENSE AIR AND VERY LOW TIDE THEY MIGHT SURVIVE. IN FREE-FALL THEY DIE. OTHERWISE WE WOULD FIND TREES GROWING NATURALLY IN THE CLUMP.

Booce was talking. "Hilar thinks he's got me by the seeds. He offered me a loan if I withdraw my tree from sale, but he's not serious. It'd break me. I'd be paying interest, and no way to get it back. Of course he doesn't know about the Wart metal."

"Do you really need to know if he can grow burl?" Jeffer said. "Booce, you're satisfied that he's trying it. You only need a short-term loan till you can sell your metal. The Belmys aren't your enemies, are they?"

"No, they're friends. Who would I talk to if I couldn't talk to other loggers? But Hilar would love to have me carving the dumbo on my sticks, and all the loggers want to be richer than, say, the architects. Jonveev won't loan me money unless she thinks I can pay it back. Or if I've got some kind of collateral . . . hell."

A TREE SHOULD CONTINUE TO GROW IF THERE IS SUFFICIENT TIDE TO PULL WATER AND NUTRIMENT INTO THE TREEMOUTH AND TO WORK THE INTERNAL VEINS WITHIN THE TRUNK. SPIN THE LOG, JEFFER.

"Tell them about the Wart," Carlot was saying.

"I didn't want to. I guess . . . I've got to. It'd be better if I knew exactly what Hilar's planning."

"He'll spin the log," Jeffer said.

"What? What for?"

"Spin tide. Clave. It's a scientific thing. Here, pick up that pot or whatever and throw it round and round your head. Ann's length . . . like that, stet. Feel the pull? Like tide, isn't it? Belmy'll use his steam rocket to start the log spinning, not enough to tear it apart, just enough to keep some pull inside the tuft. The tree needs tide to move its food around-"

"By the State, I believe you're right."

"But the, uh, growth patterns would still be screwed up, with Voy going round and round and weird Clump tides going every which way. I've never seen burl, but isn't that what you want, Booce? Grain that doesn't grow in straight lines? He'll spin it just enough to keep water and fertilizer in the treemouth."

"Yes. Okay."

LOSING CONTACT.

Hilar and Jonveev waited, wearing polite smiles, until Booce had finished talking. "Burl," Hilar said. "It sounds interesting but risky."

"Hardly cost-effective," Jonveev said.

Booce said, "There are other values. It would be indecently lucrative if it worked. You'd have done something nobody else could." They did not comment, and he went on. "Let's assume, just for talking purposes, that you've been considering a burl tree. Who else would you let in on the secret?"

The Belmys looked at each other.