of the tomato with the underside supported surface of the sock 30 promotes rolling of the fruit destabilizing the fruit 39 s position and orientation while the open mesh enables stem penetration the delivery to the upper end of the sock 30 may be accomplished directly by an inclined conveyor belt 62 from the lower end of which the tomato drops into the funnel portion 31 of the sock 30 at an angle to the axis of the sock 30 fig1 shows a similar supported and inclined sock in this instance the upper end of the support surface 60 may be attached to the sock 30 and vertically oscillated with it so that a vertical up and down movement is imparted or the surface 60 may be held stationary and the sock 30 vertically oscillated relatively to the surface 60 delivery to the sock 30 is accomplished by a pair of soft surface counter rotating wheels or rollers 61 and 62 in fig1 there is again oscillation either the surface 60 is secured to the sock 30 and the entire support surface assembly 60 oscillated with the sock 30 in the plane of the open mesh support surface 60 or the surface 60 may remain stationary while the sock 30 is oscillated in a plane parallel to it also the introduction of the fruit to the sock is accomplished by a flighted belt 65 having a.