SUGGESTIONS FOR RATING FOREST INSURANCE 709 



fire records are incomplete, inaccurate, and lacking in uniformity, and 

 do not in most cases give the detail necessary for proper classification, 

 while our knowledge of the values at stake is even more deficient. 

 I beHeve, however, that if such a central actuarial bureau could be 

 estabhshed to collect and compile fire statistics, and if all of the 

 agencies concerned — Federal, State, and private protective organiza- 

 tions — would whole-heartedly cooperate with it, a tentative classifica- 

 tion and rating could be worked out in a very few years that would 

 form a safe and reasonable basis for forest insurance on a large scale 

 over the entire United States. 



