But by losing the lower bud, the tree saves the higher fruit.
Centuries ago Herodotus, the Grecian traveler, noted a remarkable custom in Egypt.

Each springtime, when the palms flowered, the Egyptians went into the desert, cut off branches from the wild palms and, bringing them back to their gardens, waved them over the flowers of the date trees.

What was meant by this ceremony Herodotus did not know.

The husbandmen believed that if they neglected it the gods would give them but a scanty crop of dates.

It was reserved for the science of our century, through Drummond, to explain the fact that the one palm saved its dates because the other palm lost its fertilizing pollen.
Should nature refuse to obey this law of losing life in order to save it, man's world would become one vast Sahara waste, an arctic desolation.
The law of sacrifice is also industrial law.