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 
o." 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 a:\cl 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 
the 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 
