186 $HE BOOK OF WHEAT 



Insurance. While scientific and artificial means may lessen 

 losses in many directions, the positive conditions in nature 

 which make possible the operation of natural destroyers of 

 wheat are quite beyond the sphere of man's dominion. In 

 some cases the loss occasioned can be reduced to a small con- 

 stant factor by means of insurance. This is especially true 

 of loss by storm or fire. Hailstorms occur somewhere every 

 season, but are generally of very limited area, frequently ex- 

 tending over but a few square miles of territory. Consequently 

 a small premium affords protection. Available data concern- 

 ing wheat insurance are not at all complete or satisfactory. 

 The insurance of wheat in the field is embraced in the more 

 general subject of the insurance of crops against destruction by 

 ; hail and wind. Companies insuring crops frequently also in- 

 sure other forms of property. In Scotland, hail insurance 

 existed at least as early as 1780. The first known insurance 

 against hailstorms in Germany is believed to have been in 

 1797, when the Mecklenburg Hail Insurance Association of 

 Germany was founded. This company was still in existence in 

 1878. For the first 50 years of its career there was an average 

 rate of 3.8 per cent of the amount insured. In 1812 another 

 company was formed in Germany, having rates from 2.5 to 5 

 per cent. In 1888 there were 20 mutual and 5 stock hail in- 

 surance companies in Germany. 



An attempt at hail insurance in France was first made in 

 1801, by M. Barrau, a philanthropic and enterprising man who 

 was ahead of his time. He lost his fortune in the attempt, for 

 it was thought to be an interference with the dealings of 

 Providence ; the government bureaus opposed the plan ; and in 

 1809 the council of state suppressed the society. Permanent 

 hail insurance in France dates from 1823. The average premium 

 received during the subsequent 50 years was 1.05 per cent, 

 while the average loss was 0.81 per cent. The first hail in- 

 surance in Austria was written in 1824, and in England in 

 1842, the latter including 34 acres of wheat at $58.40 per acre. 

 The whole risk was $4304.66, and paid a premium of 1.6 per 

 cent, and also a stamp tax of $5.41. In the United States the 

 first hail insurance was by the Mutual Hail Insurance Com- 

 pany at Milwaukee, Wis., in 1850. It insured on the cash plan 

 with premium notes. In 1878 it was doing business in 5 states. 



