﻿36 BULLETIN 1150, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AG EI CULTURE. 



sion. 6 cents per LO0 pounds for hogs and 4 cents per 100 pounds for 

 cattle: insurance one-half of 1 per cent of the gross sales value of 

 each kind of Stock. (See p. 41.) The local car expenses usually con- 

 sist chiefly of feed and beddihg, Each species should be charged with 

 the feed it receives, and the bedding may be divided on the basis of 

 the space occupied by each species in the car or on the weight basis. 

 Ropes and special crates for vicious animals should be charged to 

 the owners of the animals requiring their use. 



Prorating when shipment consists of more than one car. — When 

 several cars of the same kind of live stock are shipped the same day, 

 should the returns, shrinkage, and expenses be averaged, or should 

 each car be prorated as a separate unit? If 25 farmers deliver 200 

 head of hogs for shipment, the fact that three cars may be required 

 to transport the hogs is and should be of no concern to them. Each 

 patron is entitled to the same price for the same grade of live stock 

 and should be assessed at the same rate of expense as every other 

 patron whose stock was included in the shipment. 



In actual practice, however, the solution is not always so simple. 

 When only one grade of hogs is loaded into each of several cars 

 included in a shipment to one market, the expenses can be averaged 

 for the entire shipment, the shrinkage in the case of the hogs can 

 be calculated separately for the good butcher hogs and the packers, 

 and also for the " throwouts " when their shrink is abnormal. In 

 the case of calves and sheep, the rates of shrinkage should be calcu- 

 lated separately for the bulk of the load and the culls or "throwouts," 

 whenever the rates show a marked difference. 



As each car in the above case is assumed to contain but one grade 

 of live stock, each grade can be priced to the shippers in accordance 

 with the actual sales. If two or more cars of the same grade sold 

 for different prices the proceeds should be averaged. 



Where the shipment consists of several cars of mixed grades it is 

 clear that all shippers should receive the same price of the same grade 

 of stock, even though the animals were distributed among the sev- 

 eral cars and might actually have sold for different prices. 



An entirely different situation is presented when part of the ship- 

 ment goes to one market and another part to another market. In 

 this case the shrinkage and expenses should be calculated separately 

 for the cars going to each market. A question arises, however, as 

 to the distribution of the net proceeds. If the manager has mis- 

 judged the relative merits of the different markets, he finds himself 

 in an embarrassing position when attempting to explain to a shipper 

 why his stock brought less than that of a neighbor, whose stock 

 happended to be included in a car shipped to another market which 

 turned out to be the highest one that day. If the stock is graded 

 and each grade shipped to the most advantageous market, it might 

 still happen that the lower grade would bring the same or a higher 

 price than the higher grade, and the manager would have the same 

 difficulty in attempting to explain the inconsistency. 



In spite of these difficulties, the manager is presumed to have used 

 his best judgment and to have patronized the market offering the 

 best average results for each class and grade of livestock. Each ship- 

 ment to a different market should therefore be treated as a separate 

 unit. If dissatisfaction results frequently, it means that the manager 



