16 BULLETIN 979, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
or he may travel direct from the office of the shipper. His methods 
of making sales differ but little from those of a broker. He usually 
works on a salary, or a salary and commission basis, and probably 
covers a larger territory than most brokers. He not only makes sales 
but looks after collections and is expected to adjust any difficulties 
that may arise concerning shipments into his territory. He is also 
supposed to obtain new customers and keep old ones satisfied and to 
keep the shipper informed about the market situation in his territory. 
In general, he must be an efficient sales agency able to handle satis- 
factorily the hay offered by his employer, the country shipper. These 
salesmen frequently represent firms selling other commodities also, or 
they may sell other products for the same firm. Because of the large 
volume of business necessary to support salesmen for hay alone it is 
not possible for many shippers to employ them unless they buy hay 
at a number of points. 
Teack Btjtebs. 
In some sections shippers who buy hay at a number of stations or 
from other shippers who handle only a few cars are called track 
buyers. A number of such shippers are located in Xew York. Ohio, 
Indiana, and Michigan. 
Country hay shippers who have a small volume of business may 
often sell advantageously to track buyers, as the prices which they 
offer may yield a larger net return than sales by other methods. This 
is possible because of the better facilities for distribution that the 
larger business of the track buyer makes possible. 
The track buyer usually confines his buying operations to a limited 
area which is small enough to permit him to keep in touch by tele- 
phone with the various country shippers from whom he purchases 
hay. This constitutes a near-by market for the shipper and because 
he can readily communicate with the buyer and fully describe the hay 
he has for sale, many of the difficulties relative to grade that are en- 
countered when he attempts to ship his hay to distant markets are 
eliminated. Many track buyers pay sight drafts for all or a part, 
usually 80 per cent, of the invoice price of the hay. This is a dis- 
tinct advantage to a small shipper with a limited amount of capital. 
AVhile track buyers are usually able to handle the hay offered by 
their customers and many of them have salesmen or representatives 
in consuming territories continuously, it sometimes happens that at 
certain periods because of a poor demand they can not buy and dis- 
tribute the amount of hay that country shippers have for sale. It 
then becomes necessary for the shipper to find a new market, the re- 
quirements of which he may not know. This may cause him con- 
siderable difficulty and loss and is one of the unsatisfactory condi- 
