AND CALENDAR: BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S. (Editor of the Farmers' Encyclopedia,) AND WILLIAM SHAW, ESQ. (Late Sec. of the Roy. Agri. Soc. of England, Hon. Mem. Cir. Agri. of France.) INDEX TO VOL. I (1841 TO 1844). The Figures refer to the paging at the BOTTOM of each leaf. Acts passed in 1839-40, 62 1840-41, 158 April M. Notices, 18, 114, 213, 312 Bedford, Duke of, 309 Berry, Rev. H., 229 Colling, C., 301 Commons, House of, 285 Corn Market, 354 Corn measures, 131 Coughs (Sheep), 259 Cows, diseases of, 259 Cubic Petre, Barclay on, 17, 405 Draining Tiles, 391 Comp. Table, 93 Elevation, effect of, 345 Ember Week, 233 Epiphany, 201 Evelyn, J., 11, 305 Fairs, Eng. 364; Scotch; Irish Farm hiring, 333; Letting, 333 Fever (Cows), 259 Fire of London, 233 Fly (Sheep), 259 Food of Stock, 301, 35; Horse Grass meadow, 205; Seeds, 313 Income Table, 93, Tax, 294 Jan. M. Notices, 6, 102, 200, 300 Mange, 259 Mangel Wurzel, 317, 341 Prices in 1843, 404 May M. Notices, 23, 119, 216, 316 Ministers of the crown, 84, 381 Myddleton, Sir H., 205 Newton, Sir J., 209, 240 Nov. M.Notices, 46, 142, 240, 340 Oct. M. Notices, 43, 139, 236, 337 Pigs, disenses of, 260 Redwater, 259 Rents, 225 Royal Dublin Soc., 64 Royal Family, 297 Salts, effects on Veg., 237 Sept. M. Notices, 38, 134, 232, 332 Spade Husbandry, 42 St. Blaze, 107; David, 209 Stings, 259 Stolen Horses, 364 Summers, 1816 to 1840, 127 Rates per acre, 57 Corn imported, 60 Average price of corn, 60 Grain measures, 131 Animal reproduction, 256 Food of animals, 360 Turnips, 317, per acre, 190 Urate, the, 394 Value of Crops, Table, 190 Weather, 309; Glass, 30 Weight of Cattle, 39; Prod., 61 of, 252; Consumption of, Wool, 337 Woolcombers, 107 Woollen Rags, 337, Wounds, 260 Yellows, 259 Young, Arthur, 30 404 The reader has now before him the first complete volume of the "Farmer's Almanac and Calendar," extending over a period of four years, from 1841 to 1844, both years being inclusive. To collect together for any useful purpose the numbers of " an Old Almanac" was once, even in our time, a scheme deemed to a proverb, utterly hopeless. The Editors of this work have however made the attempt; and when they look to the contents of their general index, they cannot but feel some confidence from the number of useful articles dispersed over its pages, that even the old numbers of their Almanac-thanks to the advice and contributions of the excellent agriculturists who have so ably supported it-will be long consulted with advantage by the young farmers of the United Kingdom. The work has now attained a circulation-and that, too, rapidly increasing -far exceeding that of any other agricultural periodical; and with the same zeal for the service of the tillers of the soil with which they have ever been actuated, the Editors hope long to appear annually in their service: by their assistance adding continually to the interest of the work, and keeping pace at least with the progress of agricultural knowledge. Almanacs indeed have, from remote antiquity, been improving with the times: a review of these may not be uninteresting to many of our excellent readers. It is very likely that we owe to the Arab philosophers, who were early celebrated for their astrological observations, the almanac and its name, “Al-Manak" signifying in Arabic "the Diary." The Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians appear to have had in use a kind of rude almanac from the earliest periods; and by the Danes they were introduced into England. These primitive calendars or almanacs were commonly made of wood, sometimes they were cut on wooden leaves, sometimes on the scabbards of swords, sometimes on portable steel-yards, the handles of hammers, &c.; but the most usual form was that of walking staves or sticks, which they carried about with them to church, market, &c. Several of these primitive almanacs are still in existence. Each of these staves is divided into three regions, the first indicating the signs, the second the days of the week and year, and the third the golden number. The characters engraved on them are, in some, the ancient runic, in others, the later gothic. The saints' days are expressed in hieroglyphics, indicating some endowment of the saint, the manner of his death, &c. Thus, against the notch for the first of March, or St. David's Day, is represented a harp; against St. Crispin's Day (Oct. 25) a pair of shoes; a gridiron on that of St. Lawrence (Aug. 10); and on New Year's Day a horn, the symbol of the liberal potations in which our ancestors, at that season, commonly indulged. An instrument of this kind, according to Brady, is to be seen at St. John's College, in Oxford; and Dr. Plott, in his natural history of Staffordshire, gives an engraving of one that in Staffordshire used to be called a "clogg." "It is called a 'clogg' from its form and matter, being usually made of a piece of wood squared into four plane sides, and with a ring on the upper end of it, to hang it on a nail somewhere in the house.”—(Clavis Cal. v. 1, p. 43.)-It seems that to this day, in Denmark and Sweden, these calendars are cut on walking canes and sticks. Symbols and pictures are, in fact, ever the favourite modes of conveying information with all rude nations. Some of the manuscript Saxon calendars are copiously illustrated with drawings. In a calendar of these gallant ancestors of ours, in the British Museum (Cotton M.S., Lib. B. 5)—are several delineations, which illustrate some of their agricultural labours. In January, men are represented ploughing with four oxen; one drives, another holds the plough, and another scatters the seeds. In February, men are shown as cutting or pruning trees, some of which resemble vines. In March, a man is digging, another is using a pick-axe, a third is sowing seed. In April, several per sons are represented sitting and drinking out of a horn. In May, a shepherd, with sheep and lambs, are depicted. In June, corn is reaping and carting, while a man is blowing a horn. In July, trees are felling. In August, men are beheld mowing. In September is shown a boar-hunt. In October, they are hawking. In November, a smithery is drawn; and in December some are seen thrashing, others are carrying the grain in a basket, one has a basket, another a measure, and another appears to be marking on a notched stick what is measured and carried away.-(Turner's Ang. Sax., v. 3, p. 545.) The earliest written almanacs of which we have any account, are those of Solomon Jarchus, published about the year 1150; those of Purbach, in 1450-61. The first printed almanacs were perhaps those of John Muller, of Nuremburg, published about 1475 and 1506. These, which merely contained the eclipses, and the places of the planets, for thirty years in advance however, are said to have sold for ten crowns of gold. An almanac in manuscript, for 1442, is preserved in the king's library, at Paris; and from about that period we can trace a regular chain of such productions. The almanacs of Engel, of Vienna, were published from 1494 to 1500; and from 1487 those of Bernard de Gronolachs, of Barcelona. There are several manuscript almanacs of the fourteenth century in the libraries of the British Museum, and in that of Corpus Christi College, at Cambridge. In England the publication of almanacs was long monopolized by the Universities, and the Stationers' Company, under a grant from James the First, dated March the 8th, 1615, in which the king, as gravely as absurdly, gave and granted full power to the Company to print "all manner of almanacs and prognostications whatsoever in the English tongue." This regal grant, however, was declared by the Court of Common Pleas, in 1775, to be illegal.-(Stationers' Comp. v. Carnan. 2, W. Black. 1004.) Almanacs were for some years subject to a stamp duty of fifteen-pence; but that impost has been since 1837 removed. The early almanacs, we have already observed, contained little else than astronomical and astrological observations, with a mass of absurd medical astronomical observations. An almanac, printed from a manuscript for the year 1386, now in the British Museum, contains nothing else. It begins thus :-"The Lyon es ye howce of ye son. The Crab es ye howce of ye mone. The Virgyn es ye princepal howce of marcy" &c. In another, printed in 1562, entitled, “ a prognosticacion for the yere 1562, by John Securis, of the New Strete in Salisburie," we are gravely informed, amongst other things of an equally valuable kind, that "the best time to set beanes and peason is at the full of the mone. The best time to hier seruauntes is in Taurus and Gemini." Each almanac maker long seemed to strive who should run the fastest in the race of absurdities, for even a century afterwards, in 1667, White, in his Countryman's Calendar, had regular monthly notices of the imaginary unlucky days; thus he says, under the head May, "But May hath its ill days, of which the sober husbandman, farmer, &c., ought to be cautious; and those are the 7th, 13th, 20th, and 28th days, all of which may cause ill actions, as well as ill weather." The predictions, however, relating to political affairs, in which the preparers of these almanacs formerly luxuriated, appear to have sometimes excited the indignation of even sovereign princes; thus, Henry III. of France, by an ordonnance of 1579, desired that "no almanac-maker should presume to give predictions relating to civil affairs, either of States or private persons, in terms either express or covert." These kind of predictions are ever the favourite objects of regard by the illiterate nd the superstitious. They still are contained in some of the almanacs of his country. The almanac annexed to the Book of Common Prayer is art of the law of England, and is that calendar of which the Courts must notice in the return of writs, &c.-Blackstone's Com. v. iii. p. 333. |