Note 55 — SOME CHESHIRE CUSTOMS, PROVERBS, AND FOLK-LORE
Reading edition
There is always an “up” and “down” in all the versions met with, but, as pointed out in Shropshire Folk-Lore, the original no doubt was:—
“Up with the ladder and down with the can,”
i.e. the ladder is to be raised to the apple-loft and the can taken down in the cellar for ale or cider.