As has already been mentioned, many folks relied on resilient apple trees—because they pruned little and sprayed even less. One man, remembering his childhood in Berea, Kentucky, in the 1930s, recalled that his father’s care of his orchard (including spring lime sulfur sprays)—and also his knowledge of grafting—set him apart from his neighbors:
The orchard was in stark contrast to that of our neighbors. The older country orchards were of the older varieties of apples that one found then, such as shortcores or sheep-nosed apples and sweet apples. None of our neighbors ever pruned their trees as Dad did, and none of them ever sprayed. Dad had a big barrel that he hauled in the back of the wagon. The top would clamp on, so that it could be pressurized, and first Ruth and then Earl, if they weren’t in school, drove him up and down the rows of trees in the horse drawn wagon, while Dad pumped air into the barrel to pressurize it and sprayed the trees. With a long rubber hose with a long pipe extension on it, he sprayed the trees in the spring with a sulphurous mixture that stunk like hell, as he did when he came into the house.
Also, in contrast to our neighbors, Dad learned to take cuttings and buds from trees, so that he could graft what he wanted. He would carefully splice a graft and cover it with wax to protect it until it grew together. He would sit at night in the living room and with a pocket knife, carefully split the bark lengthwise, of what he wanted to graft, and then insert a bud and seal it with wax. He did a lot of work at night of this kind.
From George Kilbourne, Remembrance: Reflections on the Memories of Maud and John Kilbourne (Privately Printed, 2013), 217.
Many people naturally favored apples that could take some negelct. Short Core (mentioned above) was widespread in Kentucky (and in some parts of Tennessee—and possibly also SW Virginia, as Tom Brown lists a “Short Core” as one of his Grayson County finds) because 1.) it apparently resisted diseases such as scab; 2.) it stored all winter;[*] 3.) it resisted codling moth because of its hard, dense flesh; and 4.) it could be propagated by root suckers, no knowledge of grafting required.
Of course, disease/pest pressure was not what it is now, and what was once no-spray will probably at least need a low-spray program in most areas.
[*]NOTE: The author remembers the keeping ability of Short Core apples harvested at his grandparents’ house in Berea:
There was an orchard just east of the house. Right at the end of the sideyard was one of the biggest shortcore apple trees I have ever seen. It was always loaded with apples. The apples were picked in the fall and stored in the barn until they ripened. Those apples were as hard as rocks until after Christmas. Other kinds of apples that ripened earlier filled out the year. One fall, Nancy and I filled the cavity of the big holly tree with those apples and covered then with hay. We forgot about them until spring. When we dipped into them, they were nice and ripe
For those interested, here’s the entry for Short Core at Horne Creek (complete with a purdy picture): Apple Index - "Sally Gray to Slope" | NC Historic Sites