YOUNG SYCAMOKK Fl<; TKKK 



Once a year, and always on the same day, the Egyptians make a ring of bruises and scars 

 in the l)ark of the trunks of their sycamore lig trees, under the hehef that this makes 

 them he£ir better. This custom, like many others in ])rimilivc agriculture, is doulUless 

 a combination of jnire superstition and em])irical science. The idea that the tnmk 

 must be injured only on a certain .saint's day appears to be superstitious; but the idea 

 that it bears better with such treatment is l)orne out to some extent by modern experi- 

 mental horticulture. It has frequently been found that ringing or girdling the trunk 

 of a fruit tree will improve its yield. This may be due, in part at least, to the fact that 

 starch an<l sugar, manufactured in the leaves, are jjreventcd from descending in tiie soft 

 inner l)ark an<i, being kept in the l)ranchcs of the tree, form a stimulus to the ])roducti()n 

 an<l maturation of fruit. The variety liere shown is that known as Roumi at Cairo. 

 (Fig. 1.) 



