338 Our Farming. 



but few members. Too large a payment is brought on to individ- 

 uals at once. I am carrying $8,400 fire insurance on house, barn 

 and contents. Suppose twenty of us neighbors unite in a mutual 

 company and my buildings burn a total loss. Don't you see it 

 would be pretty hard on the nineteen to shell out $8,400 to me all 

 at once ? It would break up the company. Of course, this large 

 loss might never occur, but then again it might to-night. The 

 risk is always present, and is too heavy. With a great, large 

 mutual company, and many thousands of members, the average 

 of losses would be light and the company safe. For a single man 

 to take this risk is far worse than for a small mutual company. 

 He stakes all his buildings are worth on a single risk, which is a 

 desperate business. If the farmer who takes his own risk has 

 means to rebuild with, that he can lose without hardly missing 

 it, why he may do his own insuring, but it is a desperate risk, 

 all the same, and it would be far better business policy to get his 

 property insured in a large, sound company. If a man owned a 

 thousand houses, standing apart from each other, he might to 

 advantage run his own risk. The saving in premiums would be 

 a large enough matter for him to take the chances, the same as a 

 regular company does. He could probably more than pay his 

 losses as they occurred. 



The farmer who has not the money to rebuild with, certainly 

 should not run his own risk on a single one or two or three build- 

 ings. A loss to him would mean serious trouble. Let the well-to-do 

 man take the risk, if he chooses, but the one who is in debt or 

 barely owns his farm, can afford to run no chances. Our great 

 insurance companies have been getting very rich, I will admit, but 

 this makes the insurance money so much more certain to come, in 

 case of loss. I was talking to-day with the agent of a large 

 company who told me they were drawing on their surplus this year, 

 as fires had increased so of late. A heavy surplus makes us so 

 much safer. Really the premiums charged on farm property are 

 not unreasonable. The writer has kept all his buildings and their 

 contents quite fully insured, ever since he had any. To be sure, 

 twenty-two years have passed without a loss. Had I done my 

 own insuring, I might have quite a little more money at interest 

 to-day, that is now in the hands of the insurance companies, or 

 has been paid to my more unfortunate brothers. But here is the 

 point : How do I know my house will not burn to-night? The well- 

 insured man, though dreading fire, can certainly feel easier. He 

 has done what he could to meet an emergency that may come at 

 any moment. He may go to sleep and trust in Providence. I 

 said I had kept all buildings and their contents quite fully insured. 

 It is the rule, I know, to not take buildings at more than two-thirds 

 of their actual value. This is simply, of course, to avoid the risk 

 of the owner burning his own property, or letting it burn in case 

 it catches fire. Otherwise, companies would not care how high 



