Studies of the Max Kade Institute

Wenn man die Bume setzt und pflanzt in den verbotenen Zeichen,
nehmlich im Scorpion und Krebs; darum soll man keinen Baum in solchen
verbotenen Zeichen weder setzen, pfropfen, hacken, schneiden, diingen,
noch sonst ein Geschlft daran vornehmen, auch kein Obst abnehmen,
sonst wachst der Krebs in den Schelfen, nimmt den Bumen die Kraft,
dass sie nicht viel Frichte bringen, und zuletzt, wenn man nicht wehret,
ganz und gar verderben.
In 1807 Schnee also published the first almanac of Lebanon,
Neuer Hauswirtschafts Calendar auf das Jahr 1808.11 On the
title page he advertised, "Siebenmal herausgegeben von Henrich
Schweitzer in Philadelphia und jetzt zum erstenmal von J. Schnee in
Libanon." Schnee made use of a cover, engraved by J. F. Reiche12
for Schweitzer's Philadelphia almanacs for the years 1799 through
1805. It is a pastoral scene in which Reiche pictures a farmer in
knee-breeches and his small son overlooking fields being ploughed,
grazing cattle, and a distant village with two church spires. The father
is pointing to a rainbow which shares the cloudy sky with sunrays,
symbolizing that happiness lies in the simple rural life. Lebanon's
almanac was published annually until 1814, in which year it was
printed by Jacob's brother Joseph Schnee, who assisted Jacob in his
print shop.
Schnee's almanacs contain reading material that was both
educational and entertaining. There is a discussion on astronomy
in the 1810 Calendar, an article on the accurate and historical
"Arrangement of Time" in 1812, and a short history of "the ascent
of the German nation from paganism to Christianity" in the 1813
almanac. There are the customary tables of information, the signs of
the zodiac, feast days, eclipses, chronology, and standards of weight
and value of currency in use, and also short moralistic or humorous
anecdotes, many containing social satire.
Schnee's almanacs also contain a sampling of German-
American verse, which took as its subjects astrology, astronomy,
religion, history, and the foibles of men and women as manifested
in marriage and infidelity. The 1813 almanac features a humorous
poem on cuckoldry-a merchant captain returning home after several
years at sea to be greeted by his loving wife and newborn son. His
wife is ready with an explanation: suffering agonizing passion and
desire for her absent husband, she had rushed out into the winter
night and devoured some snow to cool her ardor; the snow took

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