William Buchanan

William Buchanan, Grain, Hay and Straw Merchant, 401, Parliamentary Road.—

    Prominent among the commodities that must ever occupy a conspicuous place in the mercantile world are hay, straw, and grain, which are largely dealt in by the well-known house conducted by Mr. James Clark, under the above trade title, Mr. Buchanan having relinquished the business in his favour in 1883. The founder had previously conducted it with marked success for upwards of twenty years. The office in Parliamentary Road is centrally situated and well fixtured for all the purposes of the business.

    The stores are located at 22, Kyle Street, off Dobbies Loan, where grain of all kinds of home and foreign growth are kept in a highly marketable condition. Hay and straw, too, in all the best qualities placed in the market are here found. The speciality, however, for which the house has attained the highest celebrity is “chop” which is a mixture of crushed grain and cut hay, both of which are thoroughly cleaned by machinery specially got up for the purpose of extracting all foreign matter, which is often the cause of disorder in horses. A considerable sum has been expended in perfecting this machinery, with the satisfactory result that the trade in this particular branch has largely increased. The house has also a large connection with American and home exporters of Clydesdale horses and Shetland ponies. These shippers being most particular as to the quality of feeding supplied for their shipments, the firm has gained a high reputation for this class of business at home as well as on the American continent.

    An average staff of twelve hands are employed in the ordinary working of the business, while four draught horses are engaged in the delivery of orders in town and country. Two travellers are permanently employed in covering the ground all over the country, in addition to numerous resident agents in several large centres of custom. The trade extends all over the locality and the leading country districts. Mr. Clark and his assistant, Mr. Dallish, are thorough connoisseurs in all branches of the trade, and well known on all the leading markets in and around Glasgow.

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