MARKETING HAY THROUGH TERMINAL MARKETS. 9 



uniform quality throughout the car, they frequently will not pay 

 the extra amount charged for the classified hay. 



Plugging. 



Country shippers sometimes indulge in certain unfair practices. 

 The most prevalent of these is the " plugging " of cars. " Plugging " 

 consists of placing one or more bales of inferior hay in the tiers of 

 good hay. This inferior hay is usually loaded only in the tiers back 

 from the doorway, where it will not be seen during the inspection 

 which is now conducted in most markets, and where the buyer will not 

 find it until he has paid the draft and has the car partly unloaded. In 

 some cases it is evident that hay of inferior quality has been de- 

 liberately placed in tiers with hay of the quality stated in the terms 

 of sale with an unmistakable intent to defraud. Country shippers 

 loading direct from wagons may also be guilty of this practice. 



Shippers engaged in plugging excuse their acts by claiming that 

 the feeding value of the lower grade hay is about equal to that of 

 the higher grade, that since such hay is produced it must be marketed, 

 and that this is about the only means of disposition. Receivers in 

 consuming sections say that the practice is not confined to any one 

 shipping section and estimate that probably 10 per cent of all cars 

 received show evidence that inferior hay has been intentionally 

 loaded with the better hay. 



Regardless of the conditions under which plugging practices are 

 carried On, they are unfair and dishonest, and commercial organiza- 

 tions interested in the marketing of hay can advance the cause of 

 improved marketing methods by penalizing or barring from member- 

 ship and privileges shippers or dealers guilty of such practices. 



. Difficulties. 



Country shippers who do not own warehouses often find it almost 

 impossible to load cars of uniform quality because of certain condi- 

 tions of production, handling, and transportation. 



The methods of growing, curing, and storing affect the quality 

 of hay. Producers in some parts of the country are very careless 

 with their meadows and instead of plowing and reseeding them 

 when weeds, grass, or briers appear, they continue to cut the hay 

 as long as there is a trace of the original kind of grass planted. Hay 

 cut from such meadows can not be of uniform quality and if loaded 

 directly into a car is sure to cause trouble and loss. Again, some of 

 tli3 hay, even from a, clean meadow, may get wet and damaged in 

 curing. If the producer places this hay with the good hay in his 

 mow or stack the quality of the product when baled out for market 

 will not be uniform. Some bales will be of good quality and some of 

 poor quality and some bales will contain both good and poor hay. It 

 53884°— 21— Bull. 979 2 



