Will Allen

Famous Dr. Seuss cartoon for Flit bug spray. From Richard Marshall, The Tough Coughs as He Plows the Dough (New York: William Morrow, 1987).

Chapter 14

PESTICIDE SPRAY DEVICES, HOUSEHOLD POISONS, AND DR. SEUSS

mmediately after chemical firms began to promote pesticides to American families for house and farm use, equipment manufacturers began to produce and advertise pesticide applicators. Unbelievable contraptions appeared by the mid-1870s, invented or adapted to spread pesticide dusts and sprays. The marketing of chemicals became inextricably linked with the development of effective spray devices to apply the poison on the plant, on the pest, or under the sink.
pumps sometime before the turn of the twentieth century. The ad makers advertised a safe and civilized lever pump, with graphics implying that one could wear a hat and tie while dusting ones crops or garden with arsenic. Preparations for spraying were elaborate by this time, as can be seen in the photo on the following page from the This folded-paper device was fortunately short-lived. From the University of CaliforniaDavis University of California Davis archives. Here the horses pull Shields Library Special Collections. the spray rigs through the orchard, and interestingly, some of the horses wear more protection than the poison applicators. Similar two-man pumps supplied gangs of workers in the late 1800s. Workers climbed ladders or sprayed poisons from long hoses on the backs of wagons. In addition to the stationary spray devices, there was an enormous array of sprayerssome motorized, some with hand pumpsthat were pulled by horses through vegetable rows, melon patches, cotton fields, vineyards, and orchards. 107

The earliest pesticide applicator was a folded piece of paper or cardboard from which a person literally blew the poison onto the plants. This, however, was not a sufficient or efficient system, since an accidental cough or an inhalation could prove deadly. The need to spread dust over a wider area led to the use of simple flour sifters, or, as we saw with arsenic, makeshift box dusters with milk screens nailed on the bottom. The lovable fireplace bellows was the next household item to be jerry-rigged as a pesticide duster. Modified and enlarged, the bellows could be ordered with attachments for fumigation and animal-pest control. This enabled farmers and gardeners to blow poison dust wherever and on whatever needed it. Pump applicators supplemented this primitive arsenal in the 1880s, facilitating the spread of poisons at home and in the fields. Only slightly different from a bicycle pump, they increased efficiency and range significantly. Pumps came with a variety of attachments that could accommodate numerous poisons and different applicator needs. For the next forty years, manufacturers endlessly modified these canister pumps, especially for household use. Fabricators and farmers developed crank and lever

Most types of pumps that we have today were available to American farmers, nurserymen, and gardeners by the early 1900s. By the 1910s compressed-air and gas sprayers became more widely used. But pesticide sprayers were not used only by farmers; householders also used spray rigs and chemical poisons. As the U.S. population urbanized, domestic households became an increasingly important market for the chemical merchants. Frank Presbrey in The History and Development of Advertising and Roland Marchand in Advertising the American Dream, along with several other authors, point out how advertisers linked chemical cleanliness with being American in the 1920s.1 American interest in technology was stimulated by the press, and by advertisers who applauded, defended, and marketed each new scientific breakthrough in pest control. Each concoction was heralded as the product that could eradicate all household pests. Many American cities, however, continued to have only patchwork programs of sanitation and unclean water-supply systems. Without well-designed systems
From the University of California at Davis Shields Library Special Collections. No date, though probably 18801890.

to deliver freshwater and carry away wastes, disease continued to be a constant reality of American cities. Filth, rats, and fear of the plague still drove buyers to get rat poisons or call the exterminator, since most people felt that rats carried almost any disease that would come along for the ride. Preying on these real but often media-exaggerated fears, pest control and chemical advertising agencies turned out creative and dramatic campaigns that really stimulated the market. Of course, such campaigns were successful because there were always too many rats, flies, mosquitoes, and roaches. For the pest exterminators at the turn of the century, there was a greatly expanding market! As cities grew and the problems worsened, customers began to complain about the ineffectiveness and danger of the products. To deal with this consumer skepticism, advertisers increased their propaganda to convince families that they needed chemicals and spray devices that they could use at home. Pesticide advertising flared out of control after World War I. The United States was awash in ads, with practically every rock, barn, and flat space covered with promotions and propaganda. Amidst this visual assault, corporate advertisers desperately sought gimmicks to make their products leap out at the consumer and rise above the crowd. As cities grew, advertisers hit on a few pivotal strategies that dramatically and permanently expanded the market demand of both city and country residents.2 One of the most successful and innovative pesticide sales campaigns was for Flit, a fly and mosquito killer.

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Ads like this one for the Aquarius were common in the 1880s and 1890s. The attempt of the advertisers was clearly to imply that spraying was safe and so dignified that one could wear ones best Sunday meeting clothes. From the University of California at Davis Shields Library Special Collections.

Bellows contraptions such as the three shown here served farmers from the 1870s until after the turn of the century and proved to be a significant improvement over folded paper. From top to bottom they are Nicholsons Fumigator, the Powder Duster, and the California Beauty. From the University of California Davis Special Collections Shields Library. The enlarged and modified bicycle pump, illustrated below was common from the early 1880s until the 1890s. By that time the bicycle pump had morphed into the canister spray rig shown at right. The canister spray pumps enabled the user to have a larger volume of poison. From the Pacific Rural Press, January 1885 and the back cover of California Cultivator, May 31, 1941.

In the 1920s, Americas most common household spray device was a hand pump sprayer with a pressurized canister. Each sprayer had a half-pint, pint, or quart reservoir with a bicycle-like pump attached to spray the poison. By the early 1930s, this pump became popularly known as the Flit gun. Although Flit was the name of Standard Oils bug spray, it also became the generic name for this type of pump, due to the popularity of the bug spray. The Flit campaign was so successful that by the mid-1930s airplane crop dusters were called flying Flit guns. Standard Oil, which John D. Rockefeller started as a commodities brokerage house in the 1830s, had grown to dominate the worlds petroleum industry. In the late 1920s, the company needed a distinctive advertising campaign to make Flit rise above the sea of advertisements for other bug killers. Standard Oil was used to being number one in sales with its pesticide spray, and the company wanted to remain on top. After seeing two 1927 cartoons that featured Flit guns as props, Standard Oil hired the cartoonist, Theodore Seuss Geisel, to create Flit advertisements. Geisel subsequently came to be known as Dr. Seuss. For the next fifteen years, Seusss humorous ads, which were really commercials in the form of cartoons, appeared in thousands of weekly and hundreds of daily newspapers and magazines.3
The Cushman Corporation used ads to promote the use of its gasoline engine. Near right: Cushmans catalog for 1915 advertised this large sprayer, Great Western No. 1, with the heart of the sprayer being a gasoline engine. From the University of California at Davis Shields Library Special Collections. Far right: This ad for a smaller sprayer ran in several journals for years. It includes a guarantee to double the crop and make it all first class. From Better Fruit, 1913.

The Eureka spray cart above is simpler than but similar to spray carts used today. This model or something very similar was used from the 1880s until well into the 1930s. Only the motors were changed, as gasoline became much more common after the 1920s. From the Eureka catalog. University of California at Davis Shields Library Special Collections.

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This excerpt of an ad in the Pacific Rural Press, January 1893, p. 20, shows again how pumps were towed into the orchards and used to fumigate or spray the trees.

The catalog page at right from the Smith Sprayer Co. for 1924 illustrates the evolution of the canister sprayer, mostly for household and barn use. This page also promotes the hand-crank sprayer Savage Dry Powder Duster (illustrating use from horseback) and two compressed-air sprayers. Such catalogs were advertised constantly in farm and urban journals and would be sent free for the price of postage. From the University of California at Davis Shields Library Special Collections.

The two illustrations above are Dr. Seuss cartoons in which he used Standard Oils bug spray Flit as a prop. Because of these cartoons, Dr. Seuss was offered a job with the oil giant. He worked for Standard Oil from 1928 until 1943 and is generally acknowledged to be responsible for greatly popularizing the use of household poisons. The rest of the illustrations are examples of Flit cartoons that Dr. Seuss created for Standard Oil. From Richard Marschall, The Tough Coughs as He Plows the Dough (New York: William Morrow, 1987).

At the time of his hiring, Seuss was a well-known but underpaid screwball cartoonist writing humorous copy and drawing cartoons for the Judge, a national humor magazine. With his cartoons for Standards bug killer, Dr. Seuss turned Flit and the Flit gun into household necessities. His success, which kept Flit in the leadership position in the marketplace, also made the incredibly prolific Geisel economically comfortable and afforded him enough freedom to gestate his later cartoon masterpieces. The Seuss taglinesQuick Henry, the Flit!, Swat the Fly!, Kill the Tick!became nationally known slogans. Seuss helped America become friendly with poisons; we could laugh at ourselves while we went about poisoning things. In the process, the public grew comfortable with the myth that pesticides were absolutely necessary. The Flit campaign was an advertising stroke of genius, and luck. Why luck? Because Seuss had actually considered using FlyTox or Bif for the name of the bug spray in his 1928 cartoons. The Rockefellers were twice lucky: Dr. Seuss chose to help sell Flit and several other Standard Oil products. And the public loved it! Gradually, American householders came to depend on their Flit guns. Whether filled with Flit, Bif, Black Leaf 40, or arsenic, the home spray device had become an essential tool in the publics mind. The petroleum solvent that Seuss was selling as Flit, however, was very dangerous and probably carcinogenic in large doses, though mild when compared to the World War II chemicals that would be sprayed from Flit guns on everything from bedbugs to flies, mosquitos, and humans after the end of the war. Considering the reverence with which Dr. Seuss is held today, it is difficult to envision him as a pivotal figure in the public acceptance of poisonous pesticides. Nevertheless, some historians feel that his campaign was largely responsible for popularizing dangerous pesticides to the American public. Adelynne Whitaker, the author of A History of Pesticide

Regulation in the U.S., contends that the Dr. Seuss cartoon campaign had the effect of increasing pesticide use tenfold for the nations families.4 One of Seusss later books, The Lorax, with its savethe-environment theme, is ironic when compared to impact of the Flit cartoons. Perhaps Dr. Seuss realized his earlier mistakes and indiscretions with Standard Oils Flit and tried to make amends with The Lorax. Geisel must have known that Flits cartoons and his World War II cartoons for DDT had an enormous impact on the publics use of pesticides and acceptance of DDT. Seuss was proud of his success as a pesticide salesman. For most of his life, however, Seuss was a reformer, a progressive, and a patriotas his World War II cartoons for the government attacking Nazi Germany and the American right wing illustrate in later chapters.

From California Cultivator, May 31, 1941.

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A full-page ad for Flit graced the entire back cover of Wallaces Farmer, May 10, 1929.

As Standards Flit campaign soared with cartoons, other bug sprays like Bif stuck to the text-intense, scientific, war-and-fear format that Flit had used before the Dr. Seuss cartoons dominated their ads. Before long, the soldier and the text of Flit ads were replaced by Seusss humorous cartoons.

The secret history of pesticides revealed:

how farmers and consumers have been conned by government, industry, and war-mongering jargon into choosing toxic food.
In 1984, when the gas leak from Union Carbides pesticide plant in Bhopal killed thousands, I asked myself why agriculture had become like war. In The War on Bugs, Will Allen tells us why. Whether you care about the bugs, or the food you grow or eat, this is a book you must read. It will help us all move from violent agriculture to a non-violent agriculture which protects all life and our health. Dr. Vandana Shiva, Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy and author of Stolen Harvest In classical Indian music the lineage and intellectual approach of master and disciples is known as a gharana. Rachel Carsons 100th anniversary provoked an enormous attack on her from the pesticidereactionary complex, shamelessly misrepresenting both her work and its consequences. . . . Will Allen is a worthy student of Carsons gharana, and in telling the history of earlier such assaults from the pesticide complex, he shows us that her spirit and art are alive, welland still badly needed. Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club The War on Bugs is must reading for organic consumers and every concerned citizen. Will Allen tells us the incredible story of how corporations, out-of-control scientists, and indentured government have carried out a literal 100 Year War against organic and sustainable agriculture and family farms, and provides inspiration for the organic food and farming revolution already underway. Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the Organic Consumers Association Will Allen exposes how at every turn the government and the chemical industry steered us toward synthetic and poisonous solutions to the challenges of farming. He draws upon a unique combination of scientific knowledge about their devastating effects on the environment and a rich understanding of the organic approachfrom doing it, as a farmer, in the fields. Mark Schapiro, Editorial Director of the Center for Investigative Reporting and author of Exposed