an outdoor toilet. From the image of apples dropping onto the outhouse roof US, 1975
apple-knocker
Someone who hails from a rural place and is regarded as unworldly. Ugh, those apple-knockers move too slow for life here in the big city.
apple-knocker
A country bumpkin. One of the many terms that city slickers applied to less sophisticated rural dwellers (“rube,” “hayseed,” and “Gomer” are others). The phrase came from fruit harvesters using long sticks to dislodge the hanging crop.