12 BULLETIN 979, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
make sales and shipments direct to consumers who are carload buyers 
of hay. It is also possible to sell to consumers located in more dis- 
tant sections, but there is more difficulty in establishing and main- 
taining a business contact with such customers. When dealing with 
near-by consumers the seller can keep in touch with the needs of the 
customer by personal visits or by telephone and thus anticipate his 
needs and be in a position to fill them promptly. When the buyer is 
located at a distance, more difficulty is experienced by the shipper in 
supplying his needs. After a shipper through advertisements, cor- 
respondence, or visitation, either personal or by a representative, has 
secured a number of consumers as customers, he still has the problem 
of holding their trade. 
The desires of shippers to obtain the highest market price for their 
hay an tt d of the buyers to obtain their hay at the lowest market price 
are the principal reasons for the practice of marketing direct from 
country shipper to consumer. Some buyers are of the opinion that 
they can obtain better hay, or at least hay better suited to their needs, 
if they can buy direct from a reliable shipper located in a territory 
producing the kind of hay desired. On the other hand, consumers in 
some sections jjrefer to buy only from a broker, distributor, or local 
representative of the shipper. The difficulty of obtaining the quality 
desired and of creating and maintaining satisfactory business rela- 
tions seems to be the principal objection to buying direct from coun- 
try shippers. 
Although the country shipper may sell direct to the consumer, he 
must meet competition from other shippers. To do this successfully 
he must make an effort to obtain his customers in the territory to which 
he has the most advantageous freight rates ; he must learn the char- 
acter and grade of hay that his customers desire and need and must 
have and maintain a supply sufficient for his customers' needs at all 
times. 
Difficulty of maintaining a satisfactory supply is one of the im- 
portant reasons accounting for the relatively small amount of hay 
marketed direct from shipper to consumer. It takes either a long 
time or considerable expense to obtain good customers in distant 
markets, and if the dealer can not make shipments as the hay is 
needed, the customer is forced to seek a new source of supply and is 
then generally lost to the shipper. It is therefore necessary for ship- 
pers to have a good volume of business distributed throughout the 
year or a large storage. Many country shippers do not have these. 
Because of light crops in some sections and heavy crops in others, 
the direction of movement is frequently changed and shippers who 
have established a good business with consumers in a particular ter- 
ritory find that they can not meet the competition from shippers 
located in the sections of temporarily heavier production. It there- 
