The steadily increasing demand for our products and our large scale of production warrant our buying yearly more Manila hemp than any other single manufacturer--more than many combined. Our purchases are governed, furthermore, by the knowledge gained through more than ninety years’ experience with the fiber markets and rope-making. These facts explain why we are able to secure the choicest marks so consistently and in such quantity. We have also erected warehouses capable of holding large quantities of fiber for months at a time so that we can store such as is not necessary for our immediate wants. This helps us to take full advantage of specially favorable offerings in the fiber markets. In addition, we maintain a system of fiber examination and classification by our own experts together with warehouse records that insure each bale being put to the particular use its quality fits it for. [Illustration: TRACK AND WAREHOUSE FACILITIES, PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY] The important question of quality is determined when the hemp first reaches us. The carloads of Manila from Boston, New York, Seattle and other ports are brought directly alongside our warehouses and after the hemp has all been transferred to the platforms every mark is carefully gone over. Bales are opened, the hanks laid out flat, the fiber minutely examined and each mark given our own grading. This examination is conducted purely from the manufacturing standpoint and is entirely in addition to the one made on the dock. The expert ability to judge fiber and the constant care required can be imagined from the fact that single shipments frequently contain as many as seventy-five marks. [Illustration: STACKING MANILA FIBER WITH PORTABLE, COMPRESSED-AIR ENGINE] The weighing and storing of the fiber follow next, and the latter is a task of considerable magnitude, for our warehouses contain a floor space of over 370,000 square feet and each mark must be so placed that it will be readily accessible as needed. When the bales are put on the scales and an entry made of the weight--always close to 275 pounds on Manila--a record is also set down for each bale which identifies it by mark, shipment and location in warehouse, according to the section, bay and hoist selected for it. The hemp is then built up into orderly piles with the aid of a portable compressed-air engine, each mark being placed by itself. [Illustration: TRUCKING MANILA FIBER INTO FACTORY WAREHOUSE] By means of this warehouse system and the separate record showing the proper use for every mark in each shipment, the qualities and quantities of fiber needed by any mill for the regular day’s work or for a particular job can be gotten out at a moment’s notice and with very small chance of error. As an additional safeguard, however, against accidental use of the wrong lot of fiber, we maintain a checking system which would reveal at once any mistake in delivery from warehouse to mill.