Alfalfa in Kansas. 



453 



been built and it is being maintained at considerable expense by the 

 association. It has saved shippers thousands of dollars. 



But these employees of the association are not the only ones who are 

 down to work at an early hour. Hay trading isn't like banking, where 

 all things come to him who waits. If a hay dealer wants business he 

 must be up with the birds, for the competition at the yards is sharp, and 

 late comers lose the choice pickings both of sales and purchases. The 

 traders, armed with their notifications of arrivals, and purchasing orders, 

 make the rounds of the yards, giving a certain amount of time to each 

 one. A dozen dealers may have orders for certain grades of hay, and 

 the bidding for that grade is as keen as possible. There is nothing cut 

 and dried about it, the whole business is open and strictly competitive, 

 and every shipper can be assured of as high a price for his shipment as 

 the demand of the market will warrant. Of course there are times when 

 there is a surplus of certain grades. Then the market sags. But the 

 traders are not responsible; they must follow the inexorable law of 

 supply and demand, but so far as far-reaching system can control, the 

 hay market of Kansas City is in a position to give its patrons the very 

 best of the market. 



THE VOLUME OF BUSINESS. 



An idea of what this system means can be gained by a glance at the 

 following figures : 



TABLE No. 51. Kansas City hay receipts, by kinds and carloads, for 10 years. 



This hay comes from Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, 

 Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico, Texas, Iowa, Montana, and even 

 Wisconsin and Michigan. It is distributed to every state in the South 

 and East. The development of outlets for this great volume of hay shows 

 the great ability of the Kansas City dealers and the splendid results of 

 their inspection and handling systems. The latter are unsurpassed. 



The railroad facilities of Kansas City give the traders there an ad- 

 vantage over all but two or three markets in the country. Sixteen trunk 

 lines converge at this point, besides numerous branches. These lines 

 reach by direct routing to the farthest bounds of the country. At first 

 the roads were rather averse to handling hay, but as the magnitude of 

 the business was gradually impressed upon them, they have cooperated 

 fully with the association. In the past ten years the capacity of the 

 hay tracks has been doubled. At the present time a total of 700 cars per 



