Pat Smith
Almanacs, now there’s some fine reading. Years ago a friend in Elkhart gave me some old Farmer’s Almanacs ranging from 1847 through 1940s. They are all fascinating. Eventually I put them away and forgot them until John Tumilty shared a few “wise old sayings,” he’d found that reminded me of the wisdom in the old almanacs. The ones John found may have been more tongue in cheek but when you think about them they do make perfect sense: Always drink upstream from the herd, Life is simpler when you plow around the stump, Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain Dance, and Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.
Poor Richard's Almanack, was published by Ben Franklin from 1732 to 1758 and sold about 10,000 copies a year during its heyday. Almanacs were popular with every member of a family because they included a whole year of weather forecasts, hints for running an efficient household, recipes, various puzzles and some jokes that I never seem to get. I will include some here though because not everyone is as joke challenged as I. This was apparently supposed to be good humor in those days: “How many rods make a furlong?” asked a father of his son as he came home from school. “Well, I don’t know,” was the reply, “but I fancy you’d think one rod made an acher, if you got such a tanning as I did from old Scroggins this afternoon.” Or this one: “Are you a Methodist or a Baptist?” “Neither, I’m a shoemaker.” Or this: “Will you give me a half cup of coffee?” “We have no half cups.”
With those sorry examples of funniness I looked in, “The Book of Key Facts,” to see what on earth was happening in 1847. I didn’t find anything that would contribute to such an extreme lack of humor: the Mormons established their headquarters at Salt Lake City, the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland was founded, The Mexican /United States War continued, chloroform was used for the first time, gold was discovered in California, Charlotte Bronte published Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte published Wuthering Heights, in Britain the Factory Act reduced the working hours of women and children to 10 a day.
Another important item in the almanacs was the cure for some health problems in humans and animals. For example, in my 1847 almanac there is a cure for the Black Tongue in a horse. “A hand full of fine salt rubbed upon the tongue of a horse that has black tongue will cure it in two applications in most cases.” I looked up “black tongue in horses” on the Internet but there was no answer. One person thought it was caused from horses grooming each other but another said that was nonsense.
Since most families depended on their farm to make a living until a few years ago, having an idea of weather conditions for the coming year would have been an advantage. The almanac satisfied that need with weather forecasts for the entire year, the phase of the Moon on any given day and the best days to plant crops by the Moon’s phase to get the best harvest or to kill weeks, or anything that needed doing on a farm. But there were gardening hints, fishing advice and the best days to get a good catch, cooking hints, and hints about everyday living too.
The 1847almanac had eclipses for the coming year, plus the “Ecclesiastical Computations.” The latter included the golden number for 1847, the Epact, Solar Cycle, Roman Idieation and Dominical Letter. Some of those things are less important now but they must have been at one time. The Blue Moon was never mentioned but I looked it up anyhow. That’s for another time though.
The months were mapped out like this: Day of Week, Remarkable Days, Moon South, Moon R & S, Moon’s Signs, Aspects of Planets and other Miscellanies, Sun Rises and Set times and Old Style. February 3, 1847 was a Wednesday, the “Remarkable Day” was Blasius, Moon South – 2:14, Moon R & S – 8:56. The Sun rose at 6:56 and set at 5:04 and the Old Style was 22.
Almanacs are no longer as important as they once were. The Internet will take its toll on the fine old book but they’re still fascinating to some of us.
County historian Russell Wilhoit suggests this site for those wanting to safely clean a cemetery headstone: http://www.ehow.com/how_2079058_clean-gravestone.html
I love hearing from readers but am seldom at the Daily News office. Please feel free to email me at patjsmith@verizon.net or send note to Pat Smith, 122 W. Sheridan, Greensburg, IN 47240.
