through the valve body 58 into the return line 38 and back to the reserve tank 28 rather than the more resistive path of flowing through the conveyor motor 48 prior to recycling through the return line 38 therefore when the valve is in its normal open state virtually no hydraulic fluid is flowing into the conveyor motor 48 and the conveyor belt 46 therefore is motionless in order to selectively operate the conveyor motor 48 the valve body 58 must be closed thereby forcing the fluid through the conveyor motor 48 and back through the return line 38 the electrically operated solenoid valve body 58 is preferably activated through electrical communication 57 with microswitch 56 on the front side wall 62 of the hopper 50 preferably the microswitch 56 is toggled by depressing and releasing a button 55 on the perimeter of the microswitch 56 to facilitate filling receptacles with minimal spillage of fluent material 60 the neck portion 64 of the hopper 50 is preferably restricted so that a receptacle can be held beneath the hopper 50 to receive the fluent matter 60 falling therethrough to facilitate operation of the sandbag filling apparatus by a single individual an actuator ring 53 is preferably disposed to substantially encircle the neck portion 64 of the hopper 50 such that it is manually accessible to an individual who is holding a receptacle in place beneath the hopper 50 a substantially round actuator rod 54 having a cammed surface thereon supports the actuator ring 53 on the front side wall 62 of the hopper 50 the cammed surface of the rod 54 provides clearance.