The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:

It occurs to me, in my Professor Branestawm mode, that there may be a
solution. I have no idea if it would work, but what about a long
narrow tube of cloth, like a skinny giant's stocking, with a hoop of
wire, cane, or withy at the top? You take the hoop end up the tree
with you, leaving the floppy end in a wheelbarrow; drop each apple
into the tube as you pick it. Would the cloth slow down the apple
enough to prevent bruising? Would there be a way of stopping the
whole thing blocking up at the bottom and leaving you clutching a
floppy ten-foot stick of apples?

Tool ate.

We were using a long bamboo with a fishing net on the end in the '40s.
The wire frame of the net was tear-shaped, so that as you drew the net
back the apple was secured in the net and the stalk slid into the beak,
and separated.

If you want to avoid bruising you must pick one apple at a time. If you
note blemished/mis-shapen ones which you would use immediately, then you
can pick several in the one erection^H^H^elevation.

--
Rusty
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