Since 1792, The Old Farmer’s Almanac has spoken to all walks of life: planting charts for those who grow their own food; recipes for those who live in the kitchen; Moon- and sunrise times for those who watch the skies; and forecasts for those who don’t like the question of weather, left up in the air. The Old Farmer’s Almanac is North America’s most popular reference guide and oldest continuously published periodical. Its history is as rich and diverse as the Almanac itself. Under the guiding hand of its first editor, Robert B. Thomas, the premier 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). 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. 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, it can only be surmised 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.) The Old Farmer’s Almanac is the oldest almanac in the country—started when George Washington was president. And we’re also proud to say that it’s still made in the U.S.A., which seems to be a rare claim these days. A new edition comes out every year by early September. You’ll start to see it climb in the non-fiction best-seller list until it’s #1 in the Boston Globe and other newspapers. The Old Farmer’s Almanac is the best-selling annual periodical in North America—sold coast-to-coast in the U.S. and Canada. The latest edition can be found wherever magazines and books are sold, from local bookstores to Amazon to our own Web store. If you look back at archive editions of The Old Farmer’s Almanac (see below), you’ll see that this small book with its yellowish cover hasn’t changed much. The words of the Almanac’s founder, Robert B. Thomas, guide us still: “Our main endeavour is to be useful, but with a pleasant degree of humour.” Each edition calculates the tides and times for fishermen, travellers, sailors, bookkeepers, beekeepers, gardeners, prognosticators, pollsters, politician, cooks, and really anyone who walks this Earth, including farmers. There are useful tools—sunrise and sunset times, weather predictions, planting calendars, Moon phase dates, and reference tables. But that’s not all. This almanac is also an annual treasury of facts, trivia, notions, puzzles, pleasantries and amusements, poems, and just about anything and everything. You’ll also find the unexpected, such as stories about “How to Hypnotize a Chicken” and “How Not to Rob a Bank.” It’s hard to really capture what The Old Farmer’s Almanac is all about. Life as we know it, past to present? The cycles of the seasons? Perhaps it’s best captured in the words of others. Here is a magazine article that seems to truly capture the essence of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. In recent years, we’ve expanded The Old Farmer’s Almanac line of products—always with an eye on Mr. Thomas’s wise words about keeping things fun and practical—so that now we produce annual calendars, gardening magazines and books, cookbooks, an Almanac for Kids, and even a digital monthly magazine. In 2016, The Old Farmer’s Almanac celebrated its 225th anniversary.