North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 11:00 AM 5/1/2006, you wrote:
>  <<How did anything ever survive before the discovery of chemical sprays?>>
>
> Well at least in the case of apples, before the advent of 
> organophosphates, I believe many
> were spraying something like lead-arsenate.
Good point, Chris.  Knew there was something else I'd meant to 
mention, and that was it.
Lead arsenate(Paris Green) was used extensively in orchards - as well 
as in tobacco beds/fields here in KY - and I've seen cases of arsenic 
poisoning in cattle grazing in old, abandoned apple orchards where 
lead arsenate was used, probably decades earlier.
Nicotine sulfate was also used extensively, and I suspect many an 
orchardist probably got a racing heartbeat - and perhaps more than a 
few died - using the old "Black Leaf 40" extract, made from a strain 
of tobacco selectively bred for its high nicotine content.

Lucky