Keeping the Story Alive: Planning for the Weather or a Fishing Trip

J. Mark Lowe

Growing up in Cedar Hill, I was surrounded by farm families. Daily conversation centered on the weather, how one’s crop was growing, or what market prices might do. June and July were reserved for bragging about your truck patch or family garden. Competition for the first and largest tomatoes of the season was expected. Breaking away from the fields for a little ‘line wetting’ as it was often called or fishing was a part of summer activity.

Occasionally there would be discussion of the weather forecast from an almanac. Television weather in those days was abbreviated and discussed what happened today and might happen tomorrow. There were no long-range forecasts. Many farmers depended on one of the farmer’s almanacs or calendars for planning.

For all of the years my Dad, J. W. Lowe, was in business in Cedar Hill as Lowe’s Feed Mill, he gave out almanac calendars.

I once heard my Dad discuss the use of nature’s signs and seasons. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 14 the Bible says, “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” He believed that farmers who studied observed the natural seasons could learn from the patterns.

As a young listener, I took my seat on a short stool in the office of the Feed Mill. The loafers, as they called themselves, were often some of the more experienced farmers in the area. Their real-life experience tilling the land and watching the sky were what made them successful. They discussed the almanacs, planting by the signs, watching for indicators, but recognizing that surprises were a part of farming. These farmers had observed the traumatic turns in the weather that caused major losses. They also shared some of the funniest stories I ever heard.

The almanac calendar from the Feed Mill had a fishing indicator for every day. I’m sure some of Dad’s decisions to go fishing were encouraged by a positive fishing indicator on the calendar. Joe Borthick, Ewing Drake, Willie Carter, Gus Elliott, Herman Mason, Dr. Robert Elder and others were known to take the day off and go fishing with him.

These calendars were a part of farm accounting for many families. Folks wrote down their count of eggs gathered, feed purchased, repairs, fields plowed, and produce or crops sold. One diabetic farmer recorded a R or L on each day to remind him which arm received his insulin shot that day.

An example of these calendars - for January 2025

Since these calendars contained so much accounting information, they were often kept at the end of the year. I have a collection of calendars from several families. I was surprised to find the birthdates of many community individuals on these calendars. In fact, the Community Club of Cedar Hill actually published a fundraising calendar in the 1950s complete with the published birthdays of citizens in the community.

Almost every drug store gave an edition of an Almanac. Although the content varied, they almost all contained a calendar which showed the months and days, the positions of the moon and the planets, religious and civil holidays, and weather predictions, sometimes decorated with an illustration of a seasonal scene or the sign of the zodiac. Some American almanac calendars recorded days of religious observance, but added court days, civic holidays, and the dates of historical events.

Stephen Daye published America’s first almanac in 1639 in Massachusetts. Peddlers carried them into parts of the country. Under the guiding hand of its first editor, Robert B. Thomas, the premiere issue of The Old Farmer's Almanac was published in 1792 during George Washington's first term as president. Although many other almanacs were being published at that time, Thomas's upstart almanac became an immediate success. In fact, by the second year, circulation had tripled from 3,000 to 9,000. Back then, the Almanac cost only six pence (about nine cents).

An almanac, by definition, records and predicts astronomical events (the rising and setting of the Sun, for instance), tides, weather, and other phenomena with respect to time. So what made The Old Farmer's Almanac different from the others? Since his format wasn't novel, we can only surmise that Thomas's astronomical and weather predictions were more accurate, the advice more useful, and the features more entertaining.

Based on his observations, Thomas used a complex series of natural cycles to devise a secret weather forecasting formula, which brought uncannily accurate results, traditionally said to be 80 percent accurate. (Even today, his formula is kept safely tucked away in a black tin box at the Almanac offices in Dublin, New Hampshire.)

Thomas's last edition, in 1846, was not much different from his first, over 50 years earlier. However, in that time he established The Old Farmer's Almanac as America's leading periodical by outselling and outlasting the competition. He died in 1846 at the age of 80, supposedly reading page proofs for the 1847 edition.