The History of “ Scalecide” 
During the Summer of 1904 our Mr. B. G. Pratt was shown a letter from Prof. John P>. 
Smith, the eminent Entomologist of the New Jersey Experiment Station at New Bruns¬ 
wick, saying that a Petroleum oil that would mix readily in water would be of value in con¬ 
trolling San Jose scale, providing it could be made cheap enough. Mr. Pratt, who had 
made a special study of the solubilities of oils for a number of years previously, prepared a 
sample of soluble Petroleum, which he submitted to Prof. Smith, who was sufficiently pleased 
with it to call on us when next in the city, giving 11 s our first lesson on San Jose scale, 
its menace to the fruit grower, and need of a remedy. . We later prepared a barrel of soluble 
Petroleum from material that Dr. Smith sent us. This he submitted to prominent fruit-grow¬ 
ers in New Jersey and Delaware. Our first intimation of success was a letter from him 
which said: “I sent one can of the material to Freehold, N. J., and received yesterday some 
twigs that had been sprayed about ten days ago. If these twigs are a fair sample of the 
tree, the material certainly worked beautifully. There was not a single scale alive, and the 
insects generally were in their most resistant condition.” 
After closely watching these and every orchard in New Jersey that had used any quan¬ 
tity of “SCA DECIDE” Prof. Smith wrote us on July 27, 1905, as follows: 
“It gives me great pleasure to say that T have tried ‘SCALECTPE’ during the Winter and early Spring of 
1905, on a great variety of trees and plants, as a remedy against th> San Jose or pernicious scale. Tn every case 
the result has been good, and in many cases it has been excellent. I believe that applied at the right time and in 
a thorough manner, this is as good, if not a better remedy, for this pernicious insect, than any we have up to the 
present time.” 
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