The years I’m very good, Santa leaves an Old Farmers Almanac in my Christmas stocking. I’ve always loved reading it. Not that I ever use the astronomical calculations or the tide tables. But I enjoy the Farmer’s Calendar. Perhaps it reminds me of my childhood in rural England.
No Almanac in my stocking this year (what did I do that Santa disapproved of?) but I did pull one out of my Time Capsule this week. Dated 1869.
Robert B. Thomas is the name on the cover – and has been since 1792, the year he founded the Almanac. That’s 224 years, going on 225!
Inside the Almanac, the other extreme: a thought for someone whose name has long been forgotten:
THE INVENTOR OF THE PLOUGH
It is not known where he who invented the plough was born, or where he died. Yet he has effected more for the happiness of the world than the whole race of heroes and conquerors, who have drenched it with tears, and deluged it with blood, and whose birth, parentage, and education have been handed down to us with a precision precisely proportionate to the mischief they have done. (Colton, Old Farmer’s Almanac 1869)
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Susi Lovell 