488 Transactions of the American Institute. 



I have known a certain species of curculio to deposit its eggs in oak 

 galls, and they hatched and passed through their various transforma- 

 tions ; but we know positively that these galls are not caused by 

 curculio. We also find worms in plums, cherries and other fruits, 

 but no one would think of claiming said fruit to be of insect origin. 

 There is another species of curculio which attacks the acorns of white 

 oak, and after the nuts fall in autumn the larvae leave them and go 

 into the ground, where they pass into the quiescent or pupa state, 

 remaining in this condition until the following summer, when they 

 again become beetles. But when the larvae leaves the acorn in the 

 autumn, a little gray moth drops her eggs into the vacant burrow, 

 where they hatch in a few days, and by the time cold weather sets in 

 the grubs are nearly as large as the former occupant of the acorn. 

 In winter we may find any number of acorns with these worms in 

 them, which any one unacquainted with the habits of this insect 

 might suppose to be the original cause of the mischief. Careful 

 investigation will show us that the curculio began the work of 

 destruction, and the larva of the moth was only an intruder. The 

 plum and cherry knot is a disease accelerated by the presence of a 

 species of fungus. 



Keeping Swine. 

 A correspondent alluded to " the movement of Mr. F. D. Curtis 

 for the improvement of the breeds of swine." He thinks this very 

 good as far as it goes ; but when you have succeeded in stocking the 

 country with the best hogs, please make an effort to induce people to 

 keep them in the way they should, instead of confining them in 

 filthy, small pens, too filthy almost for language to describe ; horrible, 

 loathsome and disgusting to refined and sensitive minds. Some 

 people have the idea that they can keep hogs in this way, and feed 

 them almost any filthy substance — old sour swill, still slops, beeves' 

 inwards, etc. — and make healthy pork ; or at least they can sell it, 

 and let the consumers take the effects of it. It is better, of course, 

 to keep the best breeds, instead of the dirty, filthy, scrofulous-looking 

 hogs that many do ; but even if the very best breeds are raised, and 

 in the way they should be, 1 argue, as heretofore, that it would be 

 far better not to raise them at all. The weight of argument is all 

 against raising and eating them; notwithstanding, 32,000,000 are 

 annually raised. It shows the depravity, ignorance and willfulness 

 of mankind. It is a very great wrong that so much precious grain, 

 which would be so wholesome and nutritious as food for man, should 

 be converted into hog grease, which contains no nutritious element, 



