The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1949-04-21


when we shine our spade, rake and
hoe. 1t is time to consult our Cru
Der Almanac" Even today some
people would not consider planting
one seed without first seeing if it
were 'Posey Woman"
Now lot of the younger folks
love to laugh about the "Posey
Woman and the idea that the times
of the moon could possibly have any
thing to do with the growth of
plants. But let's watch little; they
want to know when is the best time
to plant peas, or sweet-peas or any
thing else, so they go to the oldest
lady on the street, who isn't mod
ern" in any way, and never studied
physics or psychiatry, but who al
ways raises the biggest and best
peas and sweet-peas, and they ask
her. Maybe she can tell them the
answer right away if she happened
to have recently looked it up, but if
not, she tells them to wait a little,
and she goes in the house and looks
for a. Gruber."
Of course have always been a
fervant believer in the charms and
blessings of the ''Posey Woman" and
all the rest of the signs" or Char
acters of the Consultations" as they
are called. But like many others,
| knew practically nothing about
what they meant, or even where to
look for them. So now l find it is
not hard to look for the sign in ].
Gruber's Almanac.
To begin with, maybe this will
be interesting to you too: There are
twelve signs; but not just one for
each month, but rather, all twelve
of them occur each month. In fact,
the moon goes through all twelve
of the signs each month, and starts
over again. In most months we are
in the time of the Posey Woman for
two or three days. Another inter
esting thing, which causes little
wonder and confusion, is that the
signs do not correspond with the
phase of the moon: that is for ex-
ample, it is not always the same sign
when it is full moon, as the cycle
of the signs keeps gaining on the
moon a little each month.
Now, the name "Posey Woman"
is not the correct name, of course
The real name is Virgo, the Vir-
gin" and the character, or little pic
ture that represents her, is the up
per half of tiny woman, with flow
ers in one appraised hand. Of course
it is simple thing to refer to an al
manac and see when each of the char
acters is reigning, but the more i'm
portant thing is to know what sign
is for what seed.
l have been digging through
stack of old almanacs loaned to me
by Mr.. George Petre, of Maugans-
vile. Most of these are 81. Cru
ber's Hagers-town Town and Coun-
try Almanac" but few are old
Frederick Almanacs." Most of
them are quite old, before 1900, and
a few back as far as 1848.
In one of these old almanacs l
found the following list of signs,
which should be some help in in
terpreting the meaning of the signs.
have no doubt that some of you
may have other interpretations of
the same signs, and l would be very
glad to hear from you if you have
something different from this list
"A List OF Signs"
RAMPANT cabbage, celery.
= wheat, lettuce, Buckwheat & oats.
Twins Plant tomatoes, beans,
cucumbers, peas, corn, wheat, and
sweet potatoes.
Lion-Plant potatoes, peas, beets
and blackberries.
Scales Plant potatoes, onions,
beans, cucumbers, sweetpotatoes
and melons
Bowman-Plant lettuce, parsnips,
radishes, beets.
Waterman-Plant radishes.
Bull-Plant pumpkins and pep
pers.
Crab-Plant cloverseed and straw
berries.