.MARKETING HAY THROUGH TERMINAL MARKETS. 7 
for other purposes when not needed for handling hay the expense 
would probably be slightly lower. Practically all the handling of 
hay at warehouses is done by laborers and no machinery other than 
hand trucks is used. A few warehouses in the country are equipped 
with machinery for handling the hay and a considerable part of the 
work is done mechanically. In a warehouse located at Saginaw, 
Mich., the hay is unloaded from the car onto chain conveyers which 
carry it to the top floor and over to a grading floor located above the 
central part of the warehouse. An experienced grader stands at the 
end of the conveyor and classifies the hay. When classified it is 
pushed into one of three chutes which lead from this floor to three 
different locations on each of three floors below. Switches or gates 
Fig. 2. — Grading hoor in Michigan warehouse. The bales are graded as they are de- 
livered by the chain conveyor. When graded the bales are placed in one of three 
cbutes which delivers them to the floors below. The entrance to one of the chutes 
is shown at the left. The levers control the gates on the floors below. 
in these chutes may be set so that the hay can "be placed in the desired 
location on any of the three lower floors. It is then piled with other 
hay of similar quality (Figs. 2 and 3). When the hay is to be re- 
loaded it is placed in the same distributing chutes with the switches 
set so as to discharge the hay onto a conveyer on the ground floor, 
which delivers it to the car. By this method a carload of hay can be 
unloaded, graded, and stored quickly or reloaded into another car. 
With 10 men this complete operation, with the exception of the re- 
loading, can be accomplished in 15 minutes. Six men. usually are 
employed, however, and it takes about an hour to unload, classify, and 
store the hay in the warehouse. It is estimated that the cost of han- 
dling hay through such a warehouse is about $1.50 per ton. 
