Almanacs were very popular items in the agricultural communities that made up Colonial era North America. In days before the Weather Channel they provided important information on times of sunrise/sunset, eclipses, solstice/equinox etc., plus bits of local knowledge, etc. Below are quotes from a recent academic article that address your question.
Early American Literature, Fall 2005, vol. 40 issue 3, page 471 (28 pages)
"Two texts told twice: Poor Richard, Pastor Yorick, and the case of the word's return." by Lupton, Christina.
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Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac was one of the best-selling items in the colonial literary marketplace. Providing American readers with its annual blend of proverbs, recipes, and prophecy, Franklin's almanac sold over 10,000 copies annually at a time when the population of Philadelphia was less than 15,000 (Nash 195-96).
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[block quote – from Franklin’s Autobiography]
[O]bserving that it was generally read, scarce any Neighborhood in the Province being without it, I condsider'd it as a proper Vehicle for conveying Instruction among the common People, who bought scarce any other Books. I therefore filled all the little Spaces that ocurr'd between the Remarkable Days in the Calendar, with Proverbial Sentences, chiefly such as inculcated Industry and Frugality, as the Means of procuring Wealth and thereby securing Virtue, it being more difficult for a Man in Want to act always honestly as (to use here one of those Proverbs) it is hard for an empty sack to Stand upright. (397)
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Lupton’s citations:
Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Ed. Leonard W. Labaree et al. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1964.
Nash, Gary B. Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1979.