There are some general rules. Branches should not shade other branches- whether open center or central leader. This means that each tier of a central leader needs to be a good distance from preceding one- usually 3-4' with free standing trees and each tier should be about half the length of the preceding one. Species or varieties of species that do not volunteer much secondary branching off scaffolds need to be cut back much more than those that do. J. plums scaffolds are often slow to fill out. I'm actually not sure what is the best method to deal with this because I've always cut back to a smaller branch when such trees extend long wood out with no branches coming off it. It eventually leads to filling out but I wonder if stubbing back repeatedly during the growing season might get you there sooner. Very vigorous growers can be managed most easily by removing all scaffold branches more than a third the diameter of the trunk at the point branch is attached to trunk. If this is done early, fruiting is quicker and a much more compact tree can be fruitfully maintained. For apples, I'm talking about the likes of Fuji, N. Spy, Mutsu, Macoun, Baldwin etc. Cherries are vigorous growers and this applies to them as well. They are also reluctant to provide secondary branching and cutting back branches during summer can be helpful for this. Many apple varieties bare their best fruit on second year wood, some on the tips of one year wood and some others on spurs up to about 6 years old- the books usually suggest it's all about long lived spurs with apples but this is misleading - no, it's flat out mistaken. The least structural wood to support the most smaller fruitful wood is always the goal. This means that 3 scaffold branches for an open center tree is best if the variety generates ample secondary wood. Same for first tier of a central leader. Further economy of wood is accomplished if you remove secondary wood more than half the diam. of the scaffold when things start to get crowded. Wood also is more efficient as it approaches horizontal as far as harvesting light, vertical branches use more wood to harvest the same light. That's all I have for the moment, but I can also provide more organized observations if you e-mail me for articles I've written, but I haven't gotten around to putting something together that goes from species to species. My articles are somewhat applecentric but much applies to all species.

Below 45 model: 566 Between 45 and 32 model: 545 Utah model: 522 And, you can probably add about 20 more ch to my equation, as I was late in getting my weather station up and online. Carolyn is describing my situation exactly. My pluots are very late to blossom. All pears are still dormant, but I do finally see a couple of leaves starting to push out this week on a couple of my earlier pears. My Peacotum has only now pushed out 2 blossoms. But, good new for my Minnie Royal and Royal Lee, they are better synced, just took two weeks for the Minnie Royal to really open up the blossoms, and some of the earliest Royal Lee blossoms are turning into little cherries. So, I should have my first decent crop of Minnie Royal/Royal Lee cherries this year. I will be building a netting cage for both of them this year, and am taking extensive measures to keep snails out of my trees this year. They were worse than the birds for ruining my stone fruit. I also had quite a few blossoms on both my pleurries I planted in January, but the danged Burgundy plum was much slower to wake up, so no significant cross pollination occurred, so highly unlikely I'll get any pleurries this year, so disappointed. They are interesting looking trees, though. the leaves are very unique. Patty S.

I read this thread with great interest. In the beginning of 2005 I decided that my 35mm camera was just not cutting it anymore and that I needed a digital camera. After much phoning and talking to people at different camera shops in our city with my long list of requirements that I needed in a camera to... -point and shoot...easy to use. -ability to take action pictures for insects moving (since our kids were basically gone from home already, so no sports to photograph). -clear closeups without having to bend down to take the picture...so I wanted the best zoom that they could offer for the best price. -great quality because I would be taking lots and lots of pictures of the flowers in my yard. -rechargeable batteries The winner... Canon Powershot S2 1S. Just new on the market in June 2005. It has 5mp and a 12 zoom. I use the foliage setting to take pictures of flowers...since it gives a richer truer picture. I got the first one that came into Brandon into Future Shop. BTW, Staples didn't carry high end cameras, just cheaper models. Individual camera stores were just getting one or two of these new Canon cameras in at a time on preorders. I have put 25,000 pictures through the camera since June 2005. (Not all saved, thank goodness). I love the camera. If I was to ever get another camera (and retire this one to my DH's business for him to use on construction sites or whereever) I would get the newest Canon, a 5S 1S or if a 6 is available that would be it. Met someone at some event somewhere and they had the same camera I had. Their son ran the Don's Photo in Saskatoon. When they wanted their first digital camera he recommended this one also for all the same reasons. They loved theirs and used it all the time. All the pictures in my photobucket album have been taken with my Canon S2 1S. Pictures I took this summer will not be inputted into each individual sub-album until this winter when it is less busy around here. http://www.valleyrimgirl.thenewtonfamily.ca/ By the way if anyone is browsing the albums and find something mislabelled, please let me know...which means it was sold to me incorrectly labelled. I hate that when that happens...another NOID in the yard. Brenda

The link below has land patents and is accessible by the public. A land patent is the first recorded ownership of a parcel of land. It will include surveyor's description of the parcel, when purchased or homesteaded, the land office where the patent was first recorded, the date of purchase, and by what instrument it was purchased. The purchcase method are mostly cash and warrants. Soldiers in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the Mexican War were issued warrants good for land patents. The majority of the receipitents of these warrants used those to aquire land for themselves. However, these warrants could be sold to others, sometimes as low as 10 cents to the dollar. In this case, I'm not sure how it got recorded when a someone used a purchased warrant to aquire land. A land patent is valuable for documenting exactly where an ancestor's land holdings were located. BLM GLO (Bureau of Land Management - Government Land Office) Several states also have public genealogy web sites. The Illinois site also has duplicate of land patents in Illinois. For example, brouse the Illinois site below to see what sort of information is available. http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/ A third source of information is the Government Military listings. Use Google to uncover these URLs with search words such as "Civil War", "Military pension", "World War 1", etc. Here is a link that might be useful: BLM GLO Records - Home