Leaf picker

Claim 1

Leaf picking means comprising: A PICKER PLATE OF LARGE AREA ON WHOSE UNDER SURFACE ARE A LARGE NUMBER OF DOWNWARDLY PROJECTING SPIKES HAVING A LOWER SHARP POINTS; A HANDLE TUBE PROJECTING UPWARDLY FROM THE PICKER PLATE A CONSIDERABLE DISTANCE AND HAVING A CROSS GRIP AT ITS UPPER END; A STRIPPER PLATE OF THE SAME AREA AS AND UNDER SAID PICKER PLATE, AND HAVING A PLURALITY OF PERFORATIONS THROUGH WHICH ALL OF SAID SPIKES MAY BE PROJECTED DOWNWARDLY; SPRINGS NORMALLY BIASING SAID PLATES APART RELATIVELY; AND MEANS FOR OVERPOWERING SAID SPRINGS AND FOR HOLDING THE PLATES CLOSELY ADJACENT, AND COMPRISING A U-shaped cross member lying over and above the picker plate with its legs projected down through apertures of the picker plate and fixedly connected to the stripper plate; a pull wire projecting upwardly from the crosspiece and located within said tube; and having a cross grip at its upper end below and spaced from the handle cross grip; with the upper end of the tube having opposed elongated longitudinally extending slots in which are disposed and move longitudinally the ends of the pull wire cross grip; said springs at their ends respectively interconnecting said crosspiece and picker plate; whereby the two cross grips may be squeezed together with one hand tensioning said springs for holding the stripper plate up against the picker plate so as to expose the spikes of the picker plate; with release of the hand squeeze enabling the springs to bias the stripper plate down and away from the picker plate to strip leaves down and off the spikes.