39 
In summing up the matter we find that so long as this influx of river 
water was prevented no damage occurred by reason of gnats, even in 
the district now the worst infested, and we also find that in other parts 
of the same State, where this influx is still prevented, no trouble is ex- 
perienced. 
Hence it seems but reasonable that, if this protection was restored, 
the trouble would, within a few years at most, subside to its former state. 
This time would be materially hastened by the removal of underbrush, 
<&e., which would come in contact with the current in portions of these 
inland streams where it runs the most swiftly. This last remedial 
measure might also be applied to bayous affected by high water of the 
Red, Yazoo, and other smaller rivers. 
From the fact that the gnat breeds during the season when the water 
is cool, and ceases as it gets warmer, it seems not impossible that the 
infusion of the icy current of those rivers flowing from the north into 
those breeding places might serve to prolong the breeding season. The 
truth of this point can only be obtained by future study. 
It is also possible that a more extended study of the Buffalo-gnat and 
the entire country it infests might, to some extent, modify the conclu- 
sions arrived at in this report ; but with the evidence now before me 
they appear correct. 
THE NATIVE PLUMS- HOW TO FRUIT THEM— THEY ARE PRACTI- 
CALLY CURCULIO PROOF. 
By D. B. Wier, Lacon, 111. 
During the past forty years, in the vast region of North America ly- 
ing west, north, and south of Lake Michigan, and the west line of the 
State of Indiana, it has been impossible to succeed in fruiting the fine, 
large, delicious Garden Plums {Primus domestica) of Western Europe, for 
the reasons that the trees were not hardy in this fierce Western climate. 
The fruit was destroyed by the Plum Gurculio ( Conotrachelus nenuphar), 
and of late years, if not so destroyed, “ rotted,” particularly south, be- 
fore maturity. 
Long and persistent trials of this species of plum iu the West, by the 
most careful and expert cultivators, have proven that it is folly to longer 
attempt to cultivate the old and well known varieties of these plums, 
for in the northern part of this region neither the trees nor their roots 
will withstand the severity of the winters, and south, if we protect the 
fruit from Plum Gurculio, it seldom escapes total annihilation by u rot” 
before arriving at maturity, and, as a rule, for many years all intelligent 
cultivators have given up its cultivation, and have been anxiously seek- 
ing for a substitute, and have repeatedly selected for this purpose the 
finer varieties of our two most common species of 
