58 INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT 



which will profit the regie as much as the planters. The following are the 

 views on this subjects of the writer of the article : 



1. The planter should be made secure of indemnification for all loss 

 occasioned by hail, and not only of a compensation fixed when the tobacco 

 is bought. That is not the time for an estimate by the technical official 

 of the loss occasioned by a fall of hail in July. 



2. The valuation af the crop — that is to sa}^ the estimate of the pro- 

 bable crop — is made by the financial insurance departments together with 

 experts chosen from the population, and is revised by officials of the regie. 

 If the fall of hail occur after this estimate has been made the future sale 

 and the quahty of the crop can be computed. There is here an indication 

 as to the manner in which losses should likewise be determined. 



3. Although there is much to criticize and to blame in this manner 

 of determining the crop it yet gives the official responsible for computing the 

 damage some opportunity of fixing it near its real figure. But if the fall of 

 hail occur before the estimate has been made the question appears in quite 

 another light. How can the normal crop then be determined ? An estimate 

 can be based only on the trustworthy evidence of the oldest planters, for 

 in some cases the crops on parcels of land are literally rased to the ground. 



4. The purchase of the merchandise by the regie and the determin- 

 ation of damages should be effected rapidly, for the work to be done is con- 

 siderable. It is impossible to generalize on this subject, yet it may be said 

 that to use data as to the average yield of a commune incurring damage 

 over a period of five or ten years would give a much firmer and a juster 

 basis of valuation. An average figure of this sort would also be generally 

 profitable to the stabilitj^ of the insurance fund, and would meet a certain 

 sceptism on the part of the planters as to official estimates. The figures as 

 to losses thus obtained would not be subject to variation. 



GKRIvIANY. 



I. THE BADEN ASSOCIATIOX FOR INSURANCE AGAINST MORTAI^ITY AMONG 

 lylVE STOCK IN 1915. — Deutsche Schlacht und Viehhof- Zeitung. Berlin, 16 August 1916. 



At the end of 1915 this association numbered 451 societies and local 

 funds. During the year one fund, formed by fifty-seven members and in- 

 suring 321 heads of live stock, resigned, but the adherence of a new society, 

 having seventy-nine members and insuring 301 heads of live stock, was 

 recorded. 



In 1915 the insurance covered altogether 168,419 heads of live stock 

 and indemnities were paid in 4,410 cases. lyosses amounted thus to 2.62 

 per cent, and were higher by 0.15 per cent, than in the preceding year, a 

 fact due to different causes — insufficient care of the animals owing to the 

 absence of owners, scarcity of certain articles of food, impossibility of 

 procuring veterinary attention, spread of aphthous fever. 



