AGRICULTURA], ACCIDENT INSURANCE 39 



in the discharge of their duties: now agriculture is less than any other 

 business confined within the limits of the undertaking. How many 

 accidents giving claim to compensation are there not that happen to others 

 than farm labourers ? In addition, many persons, not farm labourers 

 still want compensation in case of disablement through accidents in 

 their work. Consider only the children or the members of the farmers' 

 family working on the farm. There are, also, the farmer and his wife, 

 above all on the smaller farms, who generally desire compensation in 

 case of disablement through accidents in their work. 



For purposes of agricultural insurance, account had to be taken of these 

 various cases. The law allo\\ s insurance in two kinds of fixed premium com- 

 panies, Belgian and foreign, which for payment of certain fixed premiums 

 assure labourers who meet with accidents of the legal compensation. They 

 also insure farmers not subject to the law, undertake liability insurance 

 for them and insure the members of their families. 



The law provides for the organization of mutual insurance societies 

 called ordinary accident insurance societies. And, in fact, a certain num- 

 ber of such societies have been founded for insurance in conformity with the 

 law. But, as we have seen, they only consider a part of the farmers, and, in 

 their case, only accidents to labourers employed by them. It was, therefore, 

 necessary, as these ordinary societies can only transact insurance business 

 in conformity with the law, to organize, in connection with them, other in- 

 surance societies, for the various cases mentioned above. 



The law has not made accident insurance comptdsory, but has guar- 

 anteed the sufferers by accidents definite compensation, When a farmer not 

 subject to the law of December 24th., 1903 is not insured by a company ap- 

 proved by the Government and submitting to Government inspection, he 

 must pay, imless especially dispensed, a certain amoimt into a guarantee 

 fund, which is really an insurance against the insolvency of the master. 

 Even though he pays this premium, the master on whose property an accid- 

 ent occurs is bound to give the legal compensation. But in case of the 

 masters' insolvency, the sufferer may apply to the guarantee fund. 



In fact, the very great majority of the farmers subject to the law of De- 

 cember 24th., 1903, are insured in a company authorized by Government. 



There are two mutual insurance societies undertaking these agricul- 

 tural risks, but by far the most important is the Caisse Commune d' assurance 

 des cultivateurs Beiges (Belgian Farmers' Ordinary Insurance Society), or- 

 ganized by the various voluntary farmers' leagues in the country, with its 

 head quarters at the office of the Belgian Boerenbond. 



As we have said, it was quite insufficient, in the case of agriculture, 

 only to insure against accidents contemplated in the law, and, for this 

 reason, side by side with the Caisse Commune, the same leagues at the same 

 time founded a second mutual insurance society, coW&d L' Assurance Agri- 

 cole (Agricultural Insurance Society). This Society, then, insures farmers 

 subject to the 1903 law against accidents to themselves or to members of 

 their families or against accidents to third parties for which they may be 

 liable ; at the same time it fully insures those to whom the provisions of the 



