THE- WEIGHING OF MARKET HAY. 5 



Other handlers of hay use the tags as a means of denoting the 

 quality of the hay as well as the weight. This is usually done when 

 the shipper makes a specialty of a certain kind or grade of hay. He 

 uses a trade name or brand to represent the kind of hay handled, such 

 as "Alpha Brand" or "Omega Brand," and generally endeavors to 

 have the quality of the hay uniform and equal to a certain recognized 

 grade. The purpose of this "branding" and of the use of the name 

 on the hay is to build up a demand for the hay marketed by the 

 shipper. Both are effective methods of advertising, providing the 

 producer or shipper is able and willing to maintain the standard of 

 the output. Any deviation from the standard claimed, however, 

 would be as widely advertised (and probably more so) as a con- 

 tinued adherence to it. 



In some States balers are required by law to place a tag upon 

 every bale, giving the weight of the bale and the name and address 

 of the baler. In these States the balers are usually the weighers 

 of the hay, and the purpose of the regulation is to enable the sealer 

 of weights to know who is responsible for any incorrect weighing of 

 the hay. The letter of this law is not always followed, however, for 

 the dealer handling the hay often has his own name placed upon the 

 tag as the baler or weigher. In such instances the person actually 

 doing the weighing becomes the agent of the dealer and the dealer 

 therefore becomes liable under the law for the correctness of the 

 weights. 



The reason for not having the baler's name appear upon the tag 

 is usually the desire of the dealer to prevent the ultimate buyer of the 

 hay from establishing business relations direct with the baler. How- 

 ever, there are various other reasons, such as the desire for unifor- 

 mity of tags, for using the tags as an advertising medium, etc., which 

 may cause the dealer to take upon himself the responsibility for the 

 correctness of the weights. 



The date on which the hay is weighed is not entered on the tag, 

 but the Bureau of Markets believes that such a date is desirable, as 

 it would be of great assistance in determining when the hay should 

 be re weighed. 



VARIOUS PRACTICES AFFECTING TAG WEIGHTS. 



When hay is weighed correctly by the bale and care is exercised in 

 marking the weight upon the tags and in attaching them to the bale 

 little difficulty is experienced with bale or tag weights. There are, 

 or have been, certain practices, however, which tend to make bale or 

 tag weights unreliable and unsatisfactory. Probably the most im- 

 portant of these is careless weighing. The bales are placed upon 

 the scales, the poise weight is moved along the beam hastily until 



