228 DEEP FURROWS 



Association in 1911 and brought into operation the 

 following year. The legislation provided for municipal 

 co-operative hail insurance on the principle of a pro- 

 vincial tax made operative by local option. Twenty-five 

 or more rural municipalities having agreed to join 

 to insure against hail the crops within the municipali- 

 ties, authority would be granted to collect a special tax 

 not to exceed four cents per acre on all land in the 

 municipalities concerned. Administration would be in 

 the hands of the Hail Insurance Commission, which 

 would set the rate of the special tax. All claims and 

 expenses would be paid from the pooled fund and all 

 crops in the respective municipalities would be insured 

 automatically. If damage by hail occurred insurance 

 would be paid at the rate of five dollars per acre when 

 crop was destroyed completely and pro rata if only 

 partially destroyed. This co-operative insurance scheme 

 was instituted successfully in the fall of 1912, soon 

 spread throughout Saskatchewan and was destined 

 eventually to carry more than twenty-five million 

 dollars of hail insurance. 



Shortly after the launching of co-operative hail 

 insurance the discussions among the Saskatchewan 

 farmers in regard to the co-operative purchasing of 

 farm commodities for their own use came to a head in 

 a request to the Provincial Government for the widen- 

 ing of charter powers in order that the Association 

 might organize a co-operative trading department. In 

 1913 authorization to act as a marketing and purchas- 

 ing agent for registered co-operative associations was 

 granted and next year the privilege was extended to 

 include local grain growers' associations. 



Thus the Trading Department of the Saskatchewan 

 Grain Growers' Association takes the form of a Central 



