MARKETING HAY THROUGH TERMINAL MARKETS. 29 
hay, as such services are available only to the dealers in the terminal 
market who are members of the trade organization which employs 
the inspectors. Such practices also show the need of impartial in- 
spection available to all parties interested in the hay. Such inspec- 
tion is now provided for in part by a law recently passed by Congress. 
Shippers at Terminal Markets. 
Many large hay markets have a very limited local demand but a 
large shipping demand. At such markets there are usually some 
dealers who confine their business to buying hay offered for sale on 
their market and shipping it to buyers in consuming territories. 
These dealers are known as shippers in most of the markets. Some 
commission men are shippers as well as receivers and many receivers 
are also shippers. 
Shippers in central and other distributing markets are an essential 
part of the marketing machinery for the reason that they create the 
demand for the surplus hay which is shipped to such markets. They 
buy the hay on the open market and obtain offers from dealers and 
consumers in nonproducing sections through brokers, traveling rep- 
resentatives, or by wire or letter. Their business is, therefore, largely 
that of distribution and their principal efforts are put forth to obtain 
orders for the amount of hay which they can buy on their market. 
They do not make a fixed charge for handling the hay as do the com- 
mission merchants but depend upon the profits which they may make 
for compensation. Shippers usually try to make a profit of $1 to $2 
per ton and because of the service rendered become a considerable 
factor in the disposition of the hay shipped to large markets. Many 
shippers succeed in working up a fairly large business, often amount- 
ing to ten or twenty cars per day, and hold it by furnishing their 
customers with hay of satisfactory quality at current market prices. 
Competition, however, is sometimes keen, and has caused some ship- 
pers to practice unfair methods. 
Probably the most common unfair practice is that of shipping hay 
of a lower grade than that sold but invoicing it at the price of the 
higher grade. This practice is most common when there is an active 
demand or when the market is advancing. Under such conditions the 
buyer takes the hay even when he knows it is not of the grade bought 
because of one or two reasons. First, he may be out of hay and un- 
able to wait for another car to be shipped; second, the market may 
have advanced so that the hay he has received is worth what he 
agreed to pay for the higher quality. The buyer usually remembers 
an unfair transaction and " gets even " with the shipper by refusing 
to accept shipments when the market has declined, thus leaving 
them on track for the shipper to dispose of as best he can. 
