24 BTLLETIX 977, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICrXTUEE. 
COST OP YCAEEHOVSING HAT. 
Data are lacking on the actual cost of warehousing hay under dif- 
ferent conditions. A statement of the usual cost will enable ship- 
pers to form some definite idea of the general cost of warehousing. 
When liar is put through a warehouse in transit, the stop-over privi- 
lege costs about 83.50 per car. Unloading into the warehouse costs 
about 35 cents per ton additional. The total cost of unloading, put- 
ting the hay through the warehouse, and back again into the car 
costs about 81. This charge is the cost of labor only and does not 
include overhead charges, such as repairs, interest on investment, 
insurance, and depreciation on the warehouse 
A VTELL-EQriPPED WAEEHOl'SE. 
The following description of a well-equipped warehouse is given 
for the benefit of those who are considering the building of ware- 
houses in which to sort and grade hay. The warehouse herein 
described is located in northeastern Michigan, has been in operation 
for several years, and is considered to meet all of the requirements 
of a country warehouse. 
It is equipped with motor-driven machinery so arranged that with 
the help of about six men. it can unload, grade and store a car of hay 
in about 30 minutes. A car can also be reloaded in about the same 
time. As the hay is unloaded from the cars it is placed upon a 
chain elevator and conveyor, which takes it to a grading platform 
on the fourth floor of the warehouse. At this platform a man 
grades each bale as it arrives and places it in one of the three chutes 
which lead from the platform to the different locations on the three 
lower floors of the warehouse. By operating levers which con- 
trol gates in these chutes, hay can be placed in nine different loca- 
tions in the warehouse. 
The grading platform and the conveyor which brings the hay 
to the orader are shown in figure 1. This fioiire also shows the 
opening to one of the chutes and the levers which control the gates 
or switches. Another conveyor on the lower floor carries the hay 
from the warehouse to the car and is so arranged that the hay from 
the second and third floors can be placed in the chutes and be de- 
livered to the reloading convevor. The estimated cost of handling 
hay through this warehouse is 81.50 per ton. 
DISADVANTAGES OF WAREHOUSING. 
Aside from the added cost of handling, some shippers claim that 
warehouses are a disadvantage to them for the reason that when the 
farmers know that the shipper has storage space for their hay they 
will insist on bringing it in at times most convenient to them, so that 
