MARKETING HAY THROUGH TERMINAL MARKETS. 35 
when some are found that meet their requirements they inquire the 
prices; or, it may be that the sellers request offers. In either event 
the sales are made privately, but in several markets the seller is re- 
quired by the rules of the commercial organization of which he may 
be a member to report all sales made, together with the prices re- 
ceived for each car. 
At Cincinnati sales at the plug tracks are made by auction, i. e., 
each car is sold at public auction to the highest bidder. The dealer 
to whom the car is consigned or who owns the car usually acts as 
auctioneer; or he may request a member of the board of governors 
of the plug yards to sell the car for him. If a receiver or com- 
mission merchant desires to buy a car consigned to himself, the rules 
require that a member of the board of governors shall auction the 
car. This eliminates the practice, which in some instances is unfair 
to the shipper, of taking a car for the receiver's account without 
making an effort to sell it. When auctioning cars at Cincinnati, the 
seller has the privilege of rejecting all offers and selling after the 
close of the market at a private sale or of carrying them over for the 
next clay's market. A trackage charge of $1 per day per car is 
charged for cars carried over and the same rules as to demurrage 
apply as in any other city. 
At a few markets where there are no proper facilities for plugging 
in the manner aready described, cars are sometimes " wagon 
plugged." The hay in part of the doorway and in one end of the 
car is loaded onto wagons. That left in the car is transferred into 
the space made vacant by the removal of the hay onto wagons, and 
the hay from the wagons is then loaded back into the car in the 
opposite end from which it was taken. By this method practically 
every bale may be seen and graded if desired. When hay is handled 
in this manner buyers usually conclude the sale after the hay has 
been graded either at the railroad yards or on the floor of the 
exchange. 
The terms of plug track sales differ somewhat from those applying 
to other methods. The hay is not sold by grade and in most markets 
plug sales are final. The buyer has had an opportunity to examine 
the hay and he, therefore, is not allowed any discount if it is not 
of the quality it appeared to be when examined at the plug track. 
The seller frequently guarantees the hay to be of uniform quality 
and the buyer may request that the car be plugged deeper if he is 
doubtful about the uniformity of the loading, but otherwise no claims 
are allowed after the car has been sold. 
This system of marketing at terminal markets is quite satis- 
factory to country shippers and commission merchants, but because 
of the fact that unscrupulous shippers are able to place from 50 to 
75 bales of poor quality hay in the cars with but little danger of de- 
