Judge — July 13, 1901 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon mocks urban newcomers attempting agriculture. Each panel depicts failed or absurd farming contraptions invented by someone unfamiliar with traditional methods: 1. **Top**: An elaborate expandable fence device—impractical and overcomplicated 2. **Middle left**: A car-powered plow that explodes 3. **Middle right**: An irrigation balloon/airship—comically inefficient 4. **Bottom**: A steam-powered harvesting machine combining plowing, cutting, reaping, and binding in one elaborate (and presumably malfunctioning) apparatus The humor targets the "city man" who believes mechanical ingenuity can replace agricultural knowledge and proven methods. Each failed invention suggests he's wasting resources on unnecessary complexity. This reflects early 20th-century tensions between urbanization and rural tradition, ridiculing the assumption that outsiders could simply mechanize farming without understanding its realities. The caption's resignation ("I tried it, and it didn't work") reinforces the joke's central message: book learning and gadgetry cannot substitute for experience.