MARKETING HAY THROUGH TERMINAL MARKETS. 37 
buyers and sellers. So far as the transactions between the dealers at 
the warehouses are concerned the hay is not sold by grade, but the 
buyer determines whether or not it is of the grade desired. Grades 
are usually applied only to hay which has been bought to " arrive " 
as of a certain grade specified. 
There are three advantages in selling from warehouses. Sales may 
be conducted regardless of weather conditions, dealers may see the 
exact character of the hay offered, and when receipts are in excess of 
the demand the hay may be left in storage at a reasonable cost and 
not forced upon a market already overloaded. This method is con- 
fined almost entirely to places where practically all the hay is con- 
sumed in the market, and is not considered economical in markets 
where most of the hay is reshipped and reconsigned to consuming 
sections, because the costs of unloading and reloading outweigh the 
advantages. 
There is no question but that the possession of large storage space 
stabilizes a market. Some shippers maintain that terminal dealers 
are opposed to warehouses because they tend to eliminate the wide 
fluctuations in hay prices whereby speculation at the expense of the 
country shipper becomes possible. It is thought, however, that the 
cost of operation under present trade practices is the principal reason 
that they are not maintained in distributing markets. 
Office Sales. 
When for any reason hay offered for sale by any of the methods 
already described is not sold during the trading period, it is fre- 
quently sold later. The dealer having the hay for sale may* know of 
some buyer who was not at the market and may visit him at his place 
of business or call him by telephone and sell the car to him. If no 
local buyer can be found, the seller may wire several out-of-town 
buyers and sell the hay to one of them. The terms of such sales are 
usually the same as those applied to sales on the open market except 
that when the buyer has not seen the hay its character is fully 
described during the transaction. 
Merits of Various Methods of Sales. 
It is impossible to designate any one of the methods named as the 
best. Some have decided advantages over others but each one has 
been adopted in the particular market in which it is used because 
dealers think it is best suited to the facilities of that market. 
Under present conditions and practices it seems that the ware- 
house method is best in those markets where practically all the hay 
is used locally and can be hauled by wagon or motor truck direct 
from the warehouse. In large distributing markets the plug method 
seems most satisfactory when the proper facilities are available. 
