Farm Woman's Almanac 1945 [Cover title]

Lancaster, Pa: Garden Seed Co. of America, 1944. Very good. 8½” x 5½”. Stapled pictorial self-wrappers. Pp. 40. Very good: small chip to lower edge of front wrap, a bit of soiling and tiny corner chip to rear; scattered faint small stains.

This is a rare and lovely almanac holding a wealth of information aimed at female farmers for the year of 1945.

Printed in black and white and splashes of red, the book's cover reveals “3 Famous Women” (Martha Washington, Clara Burton and Jane Addams), sketches of Joan of Arc and the everyday woman, feeding the chickens and spinning the yarn. One page is devoted to each month, providing the phases of the moon, “historical events,” predictions for the weather and the best dates for planting. Scattered throughout are helpful hints and tips on first aid, “care of woolens,” dream interpretation, “flag etiquette” and “Seven Rules for Naming the Baby.” It printed the winners of last year's “Prize Recipe Contest,” a few exhortations for prayer and one to “Buy U.S. War Bonds.” There are also countless entertaining ads, many of them illustrated, for jewelry, cash prize contests, beauty regimens and love spells, “Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound” for “Women in Your 40's,” piano lessons, life insurance, a “Windmill Weather Forecaster” and the “Keys to Power,” “revealed at last.”

Not recorded in OCLC, which shows only the Farm Woman's Almanac for 1946, at the Henry Ford Museum.