MARKETING HAY THROUGH TERMINAL MARKETS. 29 



hay, as such services are available only to the dealers in the terminal 

 market who are members of the trade organization which employs 

 the inspectors. Such practices also show the need of impartial in- 

 spection available to all parties interested in the hay. Such inspec- 

 tion is now provided for in part by a law recently passed by Congress. 



Shippers at Terminal Markets. 



Many large hay markets have a very limited local demand but a 

 large shipping demand. At such markets there are usually some 

 dealers who confine their business to buying hay offered for sale on 

 their market and shipping it to buyers in consuming territories. 

 These dealers are known as shippers in most of the markets. Some 

 commission men are shippers as well as receivers and many receivers 

 are also shippers. 



Shippers in central and other distributing markets are an essential 

 part of the marketing machinery for the reason that they create the 

 demand for the surplus hay which is shipped to such markets. They 

 buy the hay on the open market and obtain offers from dealers and 

 consumers in nonproducing sections through brokers, traveling rep- 

 resentatives, or by wire or letter. Their business is, therefore, largely 

 that of distribution and their principal efforts are put forth to obtain 

 orders for the amount of hay which they can buy on their market. 

 They do not make a fixed charge for handling the hay as do the com- 

 mission merchants but depend upon the profits which they may make 

 for compensation. Shippers usually try to make a profit of $1 to $2 

 per ton and because of the service rendered become a considerable 

 factor in the disposition of the hay shipped to large markets. Many 

 shippers succeed in working up a fairly large business, often amount- 

 ing to ten or twenty cars per day, and hold it by furnishing their 

 customers with hay of satisfactory quality at current market prices. 

 Competition, however, is sometimes keen, and has caused some ship- 

 pers to practice unfair methods. 



Probably the most common unfair practice is that of shipping hay 

 of a lower grade than that sold but invoicing it at the price of the 

 higher grade. This practice is most common when there is an active 

 demand or when the market is advancing. Under such conditions the 

 buyer takes the hay even when he knows it is not of the grade bought 

 because of one or two reasons. First, he may be out of hay and un- 

 able to wait for another car to be shipped; second, the market may 

 have advanced so that the hay he has received is worth what he 

 agreed to pay for the higher quality. The buyer usually remembers 

 an unfair transaction and " gets even " with the shipper by refusing 

 to accept shipments when the market has declined, thus leaving 

 them on track for the shipper to dispose of as best he can. 



