I believe for those who aren't allowed to bait this still wouldn't get you in trouble. This year while going to a stand my friend was putting me in. He told me to grab extra branches on the way in. One because his stand was loosing it's stealth and two to place a branch in each shooting lane. The first is obvious but the second reason was very interesting. Like I already knew and observed, the deer go for the low hanging easy fruit. Also when Does tend to eat they like to take a piss. It worked like a charm, unfortunately for me that morning no big bucks were in the area. However, the Does came in and a few saw the broken branch with fresh leaves laying there and went right to it and started to eat and one did piss before she left. Next year, I plan on using this tactic even more during the rut.

[&:]interesting tactic.

Interesting. I may give that a try while hog hunting in the next few months. Occasionally a deer will come in while I'm after hogs. That would be a great time for me to observe what would happen with fresh "greens" on the ground.

I think anything from your natural surroundingsthat you can use to stop a deer or alter thier path of travel is a great idea. I've put a handfull of acorns in my shooting lanes before. As long as it's natural and from the area your in , it's o.k.
I wouldn't dump a bunch of apples from a tree a 1/2 mile away. I think that's baiting.
I'll try the branches.

Along that line, from mid-Dec on, I will place (a basketball -sized) bunch of honeysuckle along a field edge or even the deep woods to hold does for a shot. I handle it with latex gloves &carry/store itin a garbage bag (spritz water on it). Works like a charm - I've had does spot it and go 40 yds out of their way to check it out. Baiting is allowed in my state, but I rationalize the honeysuckle as a lure - I often pick it up and use it the next day. I learned the trick many years ago when I used some honeysuckle to help disguise a motion camera - started getting a lot of "very close" deer in the headlights pics, lol.

-fsh