52 FRANCE - INSURANCE AND THRIFT 



The amount of work (number of days' labour per hectare) varies with 

 the kind of crop> that is to say, with the ordinary method of cultivation, as 

 arable land, meadows, vineyards, gardens, woods, etc. etc. 



In the Vienne Society, agricultural risks were classified under three heads: 



A. Ordinary risks. — Work done with simple implements such as 

 spades, pickaxes, pitchforks, wheel-barrows, and work done without tools. 



B. Serious risks. — Labour performed with animals and simple ma- 

 chinery such as harrowing, ploughing, carting and risks in the care of 

 animals etc : 



C. Extraordinary Risks. — Labour performed with machines (worked 

 by petroleum, steam or electricity), or by compHcated machinery or 

 apparatus, such as mowing, reaping, threshing etc. 



The risks to be assigned to each class of farms were fixed after careful 

 analysis of the labour connected with the different classes. 



The principal classes of holdings dealt with were as under: arable lands ; 

 vineyards ; market-gardens and nurseries ; natural grass-lands ; meadows 

 and orchards; woodland and copses; moors, heaths, ponds... For each 

 of these classes the rate of insurance per hectare was fixed as follows : 



I** division: Arable lands fr. i.oo 



2nd " Vineyards " 1.30 



^rd " Market gardens, & horticulture .... " 7.50 



4"" " Grass land " 0.30 



^^ " Meadows and orchards " 0.50 



5th " Woods and copses " 0.15 



y^ " Moors, heaths etc " o.io 



This tariff is not applicable to risks incurred through use of machinery; 

 for such risks there are private contracts and special tariffs. 



Provision was made for the modification of the tariff under certain 

 conditions or for certain kinds of farming. Special rates are charged, 

 for instance, in the case of domestic servants, the rearing of male 

 breeding stock or the exploitation of ponds. There is special insurance 

 for proprietors of land cultivated by metayers, for cases involving the 

 liability of both landowner and tenant. 



The Vienne Society has also arranged for the division of profits or, to 

 speak more exactly, for the di\'ision of the excess of the receipts over the 

 expenditure; 25 % is assigned to the foremen, to encourage them in 

 a stricter supervision to prevent accidents or abuses ; 75 % is reserved for 

 the benefit of those members in whose accounts the contributions show a 

 net excess over any claims allowed to them. It therefore follows that 

 each member has a direct personal interest in the reduction of the expenses 

 of the Society. 



The Board of Management has even decided to grant (after a 

 period of trial) a reduction of his contribution to any member who will 

 engage to grant his employees a share in the profits he receives. The em- 

 ployees will thus have an interest in the reduction of the expenditure of 

 the Society. 



