A gaff or boat hook is what I was leaning towards. The goads I have seen were pointed also.

Pnut

Dibble isn’t the name of what I was thinking of.  Can’t think of it but for some reason my brain keeps thinking it starts with a P.   

I cant imagine a boat hook on a farm unless it was by the sea.  

I used one in a row boat on a pond.

There might be some clues based on what is grown in that area of France.  Similar tools are used to shake tree branches when gathering nuts or hard fruits for example.  They don't have a hook to pull when shaking because that breaks branches:  You shake by pushing upwards which is less likely to break branches.  Some also have a knocker with no point (like the loop on this one) but to bump the stubborn fruit down without poking it and causing damage.

Remember...120+ years ago, virtually ALL apple production was not eating apples.  It was really hard cider apples about the size of a handball to be pressed and fermented into pretty yummy stuff.  The cider apples are dry and insipid to eat fresh...and a pain to pick so are usually shaken off the trees.

In England, until 1885 (iirc on the date...but that's close) you could pay your farmhands in cider rather than cash and many farmhands chose their employer by the quality of the cider.  The practice was banned because too many people drank their wages instead of selling them for cash at the end of the season.

 

While location is a good general guide exceptions do exist: There is only one state in the USA with less open water area than the one I live in; yet I have found a large mooring cleat at the local scrapyard, as well as 6 99# cast iron dock weights.  The anchor chain piled up on a farm down the road is understandable-----it's used between two bulldozers to clear overgrown pasture.