AGRICULTURAL ACCIDENT IXbURANCE 45 



was previously subject to the contract provisions of the law is no longer so; 

 on the other hand, it may happen that the farmers' children grow up and 

 take the place of labourers, so that there is no longer the requisite number 

 of labourers. But, most frequently, farmers prefer to consider themselves 

 not subject to the law of 1903, so as to pay a smaller premium. 



We think on these different grounds it would be better to make the 

 1903 law applicable to all agricultural and hortictdtural undertakings and, 

 to avoid the difl&ctilties so numerous in a country of small farms like Belgium, 

 make it also applicable to auxiliar}- undertakings. 



And let it not be said that the small farmers are opposed to the idea of 

 insurance, for it is just among the small farmers that the insurance com- 

 panies make the largest profits. We have already given the number of 

 the policies of the Assurance Agricole on September 30th., 1913. Evidentlj^ 

 a large number of these policies are held by farmers with farms of a certain 

 size and cover the farmer's liabihty towards third parties as weU as accidents 

 to himself or to members of his family. But it is no exaggeration to say 

 that about 7,500 of these policies are issued to small farmers not subject 

 to the law of 1903. 



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The law is applicable to agricultural labourers and though a ministerial 

 decision of February 3rd., 1905 fixes the meaning of these words and although 

 we have already had legal decisions enough on the matter, the expression 

 gives rise to practical difficulties. It would be better to make the law applic- 

 able to all agricultural wage earners indifferently and especially to servants. 

 Evidentl^^ real farm servants engaged in farm work must be considered as 

 labourers within the meaning of the law, but it is not the same, for example, 

 in the case of farm servants engaged in household work, even if they milk 

 the cows. 



The German Imperial Social Insurance Code makes insurance optional 

 for the small farmer and his wife. Would it not be also well if the Belgian 

 law^ allowed the farmer and the members of his family to insure themselves 

 on the basis of their earnings calculated in advance ? 



It is true that even after such an extension of the law there will be 

 disputes in regard to some workmen, who must be considered not as labour- 

 ers, but as artisans, as the}' are their own masters and pro\nsion is not made 

 for their case in this law. Onty to mention two examples, clippers of hedges 

 and pruners of trees are in this position ; but there is no way of preventing 

 disputes arising as to whether they are properly speaking artisans or labour- 

 ers. The matter has to be decided in each special case. 



One of the greatest difficulties in the application of the law is to fix 

 the wages on which the compensation is based ; it is easy to oblige a manuf ac- 



