16 BULLETIN 979, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



or he may travel direct from the office of the shipper. His methods 

 of making sales differ but little from those of a broker. He usually 

 works on a salary, or a salary and commission basis, and probably 

 covers a larger territory than most brokers. He not only makes sales 

 but looks after collections and is expected to adjust any difficulties 

 that may arise concerning shipments into his territory. He is also 

 supposed to obtain new customers and keep old ones satisfied and to 

 keep the shipper informed about the market situation in his territory. 

 In general, he must be an efficient sales agency able to handle satis- 

 factorily the hay offered by his employer, the country shipper. These 

 salesmen frequently represent firms selling other commodities also, or 

 they may sell other products for the same firm. Because of the large 

 volume of business necessary to support salesmen for hay alone it is 

 not possible for many shippers to employ them unless they buy hay 

 at a number of points. 



Track Buyers. 



In some sections shippers who buy hay at a number of stations or 

 from other shippers who handle only a few cars are called track 

 buyers. A number of such shippers are located in New York. Ohio, 

 Indiana, and Michigan. 



Country hay shippers who have a small volume of business may 

 often sell advantageously to track buyers, as the prices which they 

 offer may yield a larger net return than sales by other methods. This 

 is possible because of the better facilities for distribution that the 

 larger business of the track buyer makes possible. 



The track buyer usually confines his buying operations to a limited 

 area which is small enough to permit him to keep in touch by tele- 

 phone with the various country shippers from whom he purchases 

 hay. This constitutes a near-by market for the shipper and because 

 he can readily communicate with the buyer and fully describe the hay 

 he has for sale, many of the difficulties relative to grade that are en- 

 countered when he attempts to ship his hay to distant markets are 

 eliminated. Many track buyers pay sight drafts for all or a part, 

 usually 80 per cent, of the invoice price of the hay. This is a dis- 

 tinct advantage to a small shipper with a limited amount of capital. 



While track buyers are usually able to handle the hay offered by 

 their customers and many of them have salesmen or representatives 

 in consuming territories continuously, it sometimes happens that at 

 certain periods because of a poor demand they can not buy and dis- 

 tribute the amount of hay that country shippers have for sale. It 

 then becomes necessary for the shipper to find a new market, the re- 

 quirements of which he may not know. This may cause him con- 

 siderable difficulty and loss and is one of the unsatisfactory condi- 



