Show great boston water basin cov ers thomas homestead founder of icat on started in 1792 and long famil ar to all new england got his idea from ar ahmet boston in the picturesque village of est boylston which was swept awa to the great storage basin of the metropolitan water board was the house in which ined for many years kobert thomas founder of the original farmers almanacs Al ahe old homestead where mr rhomas lived the greater part of his lifetime and many other homes churches stores and shops were de strayed I 1 tactically all the to was offered up to the sacrifice and over the site of the hamlet now spreads a silvery stretch of water upon its placid page the records of the changing sea sons the sunshine the winds and storms the courses of the sun moon and stars which the old almanac maker lo 10 ed to follow will be written for countless years to come the farmers Al manack is the old est in this country and the name of robert bailey thomas has become familiar to new england ears through his connection with this unpretentious little annual and his example still governs the purpose of the book he was born on april 4 1766 his grandfather was a cambridge uni hersity man and his father was very fond of books robert grasped every opportunity to improve his mind it Is rather curious to notice that he had no instruction in mathematics until he was 20 years old the study of arithmetic seems to have had a determining influence on his career his father had many books and he read them assiduously among them was ferguson s As and from this he says he imbibed the idea of calculating an al manac he taught school for a few winters choit terms that left the re bainder of the year free for the study of astronomy in time he became in te rested in bookbinding then in book selling and finally after studying mathematics tor a time at a school in boston kept by osgood carleton he made calculations tor the first num her of the farmer Al manack he published the arst number in the latter part of 1782 tor the year 1793 it was a significant time in american history only a few years after constitution of the united states had gone into effect and was an era of energetic and intelligent ef fort in all directions the development of a century may be followed step by step through the pages of this little book and a file of these old calendars would afford an abundance of curious information and prove most interesting reading one of the notable things about the farmers Al manack is that from the first it has excluded from its pages the e image known as the alan of signs or the s man the figure of a man surrounded by the 12 signs of the zodiac each referring to so part of his body by means of a connecting line or a pointing dag ger is still seen in some almanacs and was once regarded as indi spens ble |