34 



SWITZERLAXD - IXSUR.\XCE AXD THRIFT 



lu consequence of lains and of the mobilization of the Swiss army, 

 which absorbed a large number of experts at the very moment of the har- 

 vest — the season in which their presence is most necessary — the work 

 involved by the valuation of losses was considerably retarded, and the 

 amounts at which indemnities were fixed were consequently affected. 



We must recal that the Confederation and the cantons can maintain 

 insurance against hail by means of grants. These grants are paid in ac- 

 cordance with the provisions of cantonal laws and of the federal law of 

 2 December 1893 on the imj^rovement of agriculture by the Confederation. 

 Twenty-one cantons make grants; only those of Uri, Glaris, Tessin and 

 the Orisons make none, and thus prevent agriculturists from profiting by 

 the federal grants in favour of insurance against hail. The other cantons 

 become responsible for a part of the premium and the costs of a policy 

 which varies from 15 to 40 per cent., and formerly the Confederation re- 

 paid to them half of the sums they thus spent. But the Federal Council 

 was obliged to have recourse to inevitable measures of econom}^ and to 

 modify the provisions which had hitherto obtained. On 11 December 1914 

 it promulgated a decree by which cantons making grants in favour of in- 

 surance against hail receive annual federal grants equal to such cantonal 

 grants. These federal grants may not however exceed : a) 50 per cent, of 

 the cost of the insurance policies ; b) 20 per cent, of the cost of insurance 

 premiums in the case of vines, 12.5 per cent, in that of other crops. 



This decree aimed at slightly diminishing the federal budget expen- 

 diture without bearing too hardly on the insured. It allowed the Confede- 

 ration to save 30,062 francs in 1915. 



The following table contains data as to the amounts of the cantonal 

 and federal grants made in favour of insurance against hail in 191 5 in 

 the twenty-one cantons which make such grants. 



* Cantonal and federal grants together. 



