http://web.entomology.cornell.edu/jentsch/assets/historical-perspectives-on-apple-production.pdf
Enjoy!
62 pages? 
Iāll save the .pdf for some winter readingā¦
Excellent paper! I didnt read it all, but was floored at how much pesticides were in common use hundreds and hundreds of years ago. This view of the farmers of yesterday being at one with nature is such total bunk!
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TLDR ā¦ 
I read the first twenty or so pages and found it fascinating. Iāll get back to it tomorrow. Really throws light on the subject, and the historical perspective keeps the narrative moving nicely.
Thanks for posting the link.
Iāve read about 25 pages so far and intend to read the rest of it. Thanks for posting Alan.
One thing (a small thing) in the beginning of the article Peter Jentsch mentioned āthe forbidden fruitā in Genesis was the apple. Actually whether one is a literalist or a non-literalist, most scholars agree the author of the writing was ambiguous in regard to the exact type of fruit. No one really knows what type of fruit was meant for the āforbidden fruitā. Peter Jentsch interprets the text of forbidden fruit to mean apple, and applies its context to various parallels of current apple growing challenges, not unlike the way pastors commonly apply their own interpretations in order to draw parallels to their own homiletic lessons, but in the end itās not truly an accurate application of whatās recorded in the text.
Beyond that Iāve found the article to be very interesting. As amadio mentioned farmers have always struggled against pests and used whatever pesticides were at their disposal. I find it interesting that as bad as lead arsenate was, it prevented the loss of a food staple (potato) in the U.S. Likewise Iāve read DDT prevented the destruction of the (or revitalized) cotton industry by the boll weevil.
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Reading further this morning I came across this in the text on page 33:
Recent trials have shown that combining spinosad with 1% oil significantly increases the
observed efficacy, utilizing two different modes of action. The oil suppresses egg hatch
and spinosad kills hatching larvae. If retreatment intervals are frequent enough (10-14
days), spinosad plus oil can provide effective codling moth control.<<
I suppose this could be brought up in a new topic, butfor now Iāll mention it here. Iām attracted by the addition of oil to my current spinosad regimen. I used four sprays of spinosad this year on my apple and got no codling moth damage. Does ā1% oilā mean one ounce oil per 100 ounces of water, or do I misunderstand?
Mike, you are the one who got me looking with your question last weekend about the economics of apple production before the advent of effective pesticides. When I put this post up I wasnāt even aware of how extensively it went beyond just the history of pesticide use and how useful it might be to anyone interested in all aspects of pest control- even those swinging for organic production.
There was a long period in the history of this country when apples were exported and otherwise sold as fresh fruit extensively without the use of effective pesticides. On Monday I was pruning at a site where I grafted a lot of classic heirlooms like Baldwin and N. Spy on seedling apple trees that appeared on the land naturally quite a while ago. The trees werenāt sprayed this year and Iād guess one in 15 apples was sound enough to store and ship or otherwise transport. Probably the early commercial growers used a small percentage of their apples for this and the rest went into apple butter, dried apples, hard cider and such.
And Iād think a portion also into making vinegar for cooking, preserving, and āhealthā.
Alan
I donāt mind being the catalyst (troublemaker?) .
Just as long as it leads to something that helps us all grow more succesfully.
Mike
that would be the āand suchā. They also used it to make apple schnapps for when hard cider just didnāt quite cover the bill.