THE WEIGHING OF MARKET HAY. 11 



TABULATING THE WEIGHTS. 



The weight is then placed upon the tally sheet, and this should be 

 done before anything else has an opportunity to distract the atten- 

 tion of the weigher. To prevent errors from this and similar causes 

 the tally sheets are sometimes arranged so that the weights may be 

 tabulated in groups corresponding to the tiers of hay loaded into 

 the cars. If care is taken in unloading the hay from the car and the 

 weigher is notified by the truckers when each tier or section of the 

 car is completed, the tabulation may be checked with the number of 

 bales in the tiers as unloaded and the chances of errors greatly di- 

 minished. It is almost necessary to use some system of checking if 

 the weights are to be tabulated correctly. A form for a tally sheet 

 which will meet these requirements is shown on page 12. 



TOTALING THE WEIGHTS. 



After all the hay has been weighed, the weights of all the drafts 

 are totaled and this is the weight of the lot or load of hay. In sev- 

 eral of the important hay markets inspectors or supervisors ap- 

 pointed by the commercial trade associations make frequent visits 

 to the warehouses when hay is being weighed and inspect and check 

 up the work of the weighers, assist in totaling the weights, and in 

 some instances collect the tally sheets for the hay and take them to 

 the office of the chief weighmaster. 



In markets where no supervisor is employed the tally sheets are 

 mailed, usually each evening, to the office of the chief weighmaster, 

 who issues an official certificate of the weight as shown by these tally 

 sheets. If the lot of hay weighed w T as a carload the initial and num- 

 ber of the car from which the hay was taken or into which it was 

 loaded is shown on the tally sheet and on the official certificate. If 

 the lot was less than a carload some other means of identification, 

 such as the number of bales or the quality of the hay or the name 

 of the owner, may be used. 



When hay is weighed on dormant platform scales at warehouses 

 located at country shipping or distributing points where there are 

 no official weighers or supervisors the same general methods are used 

 as at the terminal markets, but frequently no special forms of tally 

 sheets are used and the weights are recorded in shipping books or 

 notebooks or on anything that may be at hand. 



It is thought that some of the difference between shippers' and 

 receivers' weights of the same lot or carload of hay is caused by 

 carelessness in the matter of recording the weights. A draft may 

 be omitted or the weights may be tabulated in such a careless man- 

 ner that the number of bales or drafts can not be checked or the 

 total correctly obtained. Whoever is responsible for the weighing 



