Judge — May 16, 1925 — page 14: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a futuristic satire imagining year 2000 agricultural technology. The cartoon depicts an aerial irrigation system where a farmer operates controls from above, directing rainfall onto specific crops. The sign advertises "The Jupe Pluvius Aerial Irrigation Corporation" with rates per acre for various weather services ("Dates," "Drizzle," "Shower," "Cloudburst"). The joke satirizes the idea of controlling nature through technology and commercialization. The farmer's instruction to keep rain off wheat while watering corn reflects concerns about selective agricultural control becoming a purchasable commodity. This appears to mock both optimistic technological utopianism and the anxiety that wealthy farmers could literally buy better weather, creating unfair advantages. The cartoon critiques industrial agriculture's ambitions to dominate natural processes for profit.