Old Farmers Almanac - The Old Farmers Almanac 2022

Established in 1792 and published every year thereafter

R OBERT B. T HOMAS , founder (17661846)

Y ANKEE P UBLISHING I NC .

EDITORIAL AND PUBLISHING OFFICES

P.O. Box 520, 1121 Main Street, Dublin, NH 03444

Phone: 603-563-8111 Fax: 603-563-8252

EDITOR (13th since 1792): Janice Stillman

ART DIRECTOR: Colleen Quinnell

MANAGING EDITOR: Jack Burnett

SENIOR EDITORS: Sarah Perreault, Heidi Stonehill

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Benjamin Kilbride

WEATHER GRAPHICS AND CONSULTATION: AccuWeather, Inc.

V.P., NEW MEDIA AND PRODUCTION: Paul Belliveau

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS: David Ziarnowski

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Brian Johnson

SENIOR PRODUCTION ARTISTS: Jennifer Freeman, Rachel Kipka, Janet Selle

WEB SITE: ALMANAC.COM

SENIOR DIGITAL EDITOR: Catherine Boeckmann

ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR: Christopher Burnett

NEW MEDIA DESIGNERS: Amy OBrien

DIGITAL MARKETING SPECIALIST: Holly Sanderson

E-MAIL MARKETING SPECIALIST: Samantha Caveny

E-COMMERCE DIRECTOR: Alan Henning

PROGRAMMING: Peter Rukavina

We welcome your questions and comments about articles in and topics for this Almanac. Mail all editorial correspondence to Editor, The Old Farmers Almanac, P.O. Box 520, Dublin, NH 03444-0520; fax us at 603-563-8252; or contact us through Almanac.com/Feedback. The Old Farmers Almanac can not accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts and will not acknowledge any hard-copy queries or manuscripts that do not include a stamped and addressed return envelope.

Thank you for buying this Almanac! We hope that you find it useful, with a pleasant degree of humor. Thanks, too, to everyone who had a hand in it, including advertisers, distributors, printers, and sales and delivery people.

No part of this Almanac may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other) without written permission of the publisher.

OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Bob Berman, our astronomy editor, leads annual tours to Chilean observatories as well as to view solar eclipses and the northern lights. He is the author of Earth-Shattering: Violent Supernovas, Galactic Explosions, Biological Mayhem, Nuclear Meltdowns, and Other Hazards to Life in Our Universe (Little Brown, 2019).

Julia Shipley, a journalist and poet, wrote the Farmers Calendar essays that appear in this edition. She raises animals and vegetables on a small farm in northern Vermont.

Tim Clark, a retired English teacher from New Hampshire, has composed the weather doggerel on the Calendar Pages since 1980.

Bethany E. Cobb, our astronomer, is an Associate Professor of Honors and Physics at George Washington University. She conducts research on gamma-ray bursts and specializes in teaching astronomy and physics to nonscience majoring students. When she is not scanning the sky, she enjoys rock climbing, figure skating, and reading science fiction.

Celeste Longacre, our astrologer, often refers to astrology as a study of timing, and timing is everything. A New Hampshire native, she has been a practicing astrologer for more than 25 years. Her book, Celestes Garden Delights (2015), is available for sale on her Web site, www.celestelongacre.com.

Michael Steinberg, our meteorologist, has been forecasting weather for the Almanac since 1996. In addition to college degrees in atmospheric science and meteorology, he brings a lifetime of experience to the task: He began predicting weather when he attended the only high school in the world with weather Teletypes and radar.

Established in 1792 and published every year thereafter

R OBERT B. T HOMAS , founder (17661846)

Y ANKEE P UBLISHING I NC .

P.O. Box 520, 1121 Main Street, Dublin, NH 03444

Phone: 603-563-8111 Fax: 603-563-8252

PUBLISHER (23rd since 1792): Sherin Pierce

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Judson D. Hale Sr.

FOR DISPLAY ADVERTISING RATES

Go to Almanac.com/AdvertisingInfo or call 800-895-9265, ext. 109

Stephanie Bernbach-Crowe 914-827-0015

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FOR CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

Cindy Levine, RJ Media 212-986-0016

AD PRODUCTION COORDINATOR:

Janet Selle 800-895-9265, ext. 168

PUBLIC RELATIONS

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Ginger Vaughan

CONSUMER ORDERS & INFO

Call 800-ALMANAC (800-256-2622) or go to Almanac.com/Shop

RETAIL SALES

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DISTRIBUTORS

NATIONAL: Comag Marketing Group Smyrna, GA

BOOKSTORE: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Boston, MA

NEWSSTAND CONSULTANT: PSCS Consulting Linda Ruth 603-924-4407

Old Farmers Almanac publications are available for sales promotions or premiums. Contact Beacon Promotions, .

Y ANKEE P UBLISHING I NCORPORATED

A N E MPLOYEE -O WNED C OMPANY

Jamie Trowbridge, President; Paul Belliveau, Ernesto Burden, Judson D. Hale Jr., Brook Holmberg, Jennie Meister, Sherin Pierce, Vice Presidents.

The Old Farmers Almanac/Yankee Publishing Inc. assumes no responsibility for claims made by advertisers or failure by its advertisers to deliver any goods or services advertised herein. Publication of any advertisement by The Old Farmers Almanac/Yankee Publishing Inc. is not an endorsement of the product or service advertised therein.

PRINTED IN U.S.A.

PREVAILING CUSTOMS

Had it not been the prevailing custom to usher these periodical pieces into the world by a preface, I would have excused myself the trouble of writing, and you of reading one to this: for if it be well executed, a preface will add nothing to its merit; if otherwise, it will be far from supplying its defects.

So wrote the founder of this Almanac, 26-year-old farmer and teacher Robert Bailey Thomas (the gentleman pictured at right on our cover) on this page of his first edition on the eve of its publication in Sterling, Massachusetts, on September 15, 1792.

He believed that his Almanaccalculated on a new and improved plan for the year of our Lord, 1793needed no introduction.

He offered it as a comprehensive and trustworthy package of new, useful, and entertaining matter to an agrarian New England populace eager for exactly that: reliable Moon phase and sunrise/-set times (so important to planting traditions and farm chores), no-nonsense reminders and advisories (e.g., February: If you neglected cutting timber last month, be sure to cut it now), timesaving recipes (a new method of making butter), home remedies (for ailments afflicting people and animals), court dates, distances between places, math challenges, accounts of remarkable events (e.g., in 1571, Englands Marcley Hill continuously moved for 2 days, carrying with it trees, hedges, and cattle), and moreall in a mere 46-page booklet.

Thomass first edition was indeed well executed and without defect. Fulfilling his lifelong goal, it sold out, thus launching him on a career that would last another 53 years (edition years for which he wrote prefaces, later dubbed To Patrons in appreciation of readers patronage) and setting the titleThe [Old] Farmers Almanacon a course that would eventually establish the book as the oldest continuously published periodical in North America.