Peah, Chapter 4, Mishnah 1. This chapter deals with the question of how peah is distributed. The Mishnah opens by establishing a general rule: "HaPeah nitenes bemechubar lakarka" - peah is given while it is still attached to the ground, and the poor come and harvest it from the ground themselves.
The exception - the vine trellis and the date palm:
"U'vadalis u'vadekel, ba'al habayis morid u'mechalek la'aniyim" - a dalis is a bed over which grapevines are trained, and a dekel is a date palm. In these two cases there is an exception: the owner is the one who brings the fruit down, and afterwards he divides it among the poor. The reason is the danger involved, for if each of the poor were to try to climb the vine or the palm himself, they would push one another and come into danger.
"Rabbi Shimon omer: af bachalikei egozim" - Rabbi Shimon adds the especially smooth nut trees as well, since that very same danger exists with them too, and therefore their law is the same as that of the vine trellis and the date palm.
When the poor disagree:
Let us return to the ordinary case, in which the peah is attached to the ground and there is no danger involved. Regarding this we learned: "Afilu tishim vetishah omrim lachalok ve'echad omer lavoz - lazeh shomin, she'amar kahalachah". That is, if a hundred poor people were standing there, and ninety nine of them ask that the owner divide the peah among them, so that the matter should not depend on the poor quarreling and shoving one another, but rather that each one be given an equal opportunity to take his share;
while the one asks lavoz - that the poor should come and grab and each take for himself - the law follows that single individual, since his words are based on the halachah. The halachah is that peah is given while attached to the ground, and whoever comes first and takes it has acquired it. Peah is not among the gifts to the poor that are distributed by the owner; that is the nature of other types of gifts to the poor, but not of peah, which is given specifically while attached to the ground.
And even though that individual may be stronger than his fellows, so that his demand is convenient for him and works to his advantage, nevertheless, since he asks to act in accordance with the halachah and with accepted practice, we act according to his words.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned that peah is given while attached to the ground, and the poor harvest it themselves. The exceptions are the vine trellis and the date palm, in which the owner brings the produce down and distributes it because of the danger of climbing, and Rabbi Shimon adds the smooth nut trees as well. We further learned that when the poor disagree about the manner of taking, we listen to the one who says lavoz, even if he stands alone against ninety nine, because he spoke in accordance with the halachah - for the law of peah is that whoever comes first acquires it, and not that it is distributed by the owner.