This cartoon appeared in the March 1955 issue of Better Farming Magazine. It depicts Jupe Pluvius - a shorthand name for the Roman God Jupiter, the “Rain Giver” - sleeping on the job. It refers to him as the “old Hired Hand” who can’t be depended on as reliably as a mechanical sprinkler system in watering crops. This cartoon is indicative of the great changes and improvements that technological progress brought to farming, particularly in the Post-War period. While complex irrigation systems have been essential to agriculture across the world for many thousands of years, sprinkler irrigation only came about during the late 1940s and early 1950s as a result of the introduction of wheel lines and center pivots. These advances were themselves the result of increased wartime production of aluminum and the need for large-scale irrigation expansion.
The humorous depiction of Jupe Pluvius in this cartoon should not be taken to imply that its author thought that technological innovation had eliminated the farmer’s dependency on nature entirely. Rather, advances like sprinkler irrigation were depicted as reliable failsafes in the event that the “old Hired Hand” was slacking off.