342 Our Farming. 



had policy or not, if he had paid his premium all right. But I 

 had rather have mine. It is businesslike to have the evidences of 

 indebtedness in your possession. This is the way I manage: The 

 house and contents and barn and contents are insured in different 

 policies, and the policy on house is kept in the barn, and that on 

 barn is kept in house. In case of sudden fire, we will lose the 

 policy on the building that is not burned, if either. By dividing 

 the insurance, also, we do not have so much to pay at one time. 

 Seventy-six dollars would be quite a little sum for a small farmer 

 to pay in one year for insurance, and it might come in a bad year, 

 too. Half of it this year, and half two or three years from now 

 would usually be easier paid. 



During late years one has seemed to be a good deal in danger 

 from windstorms, as well as from fire and lightning. So there 

 has sprung up quite a demand for cyclone insurance. When we 

 got our new buildings done, we felt that it had taken so many 

 years to earn them that we must take every possible precaution to 

 secure ourselves against their loss, and so took out a cyclone, or 

 windstorm, policy on the house for $2,000, and on the barn 

 buildings for $1,500. We thought best to run our own risk on 

 contents, and did not insure buildings as high as against fire, as 

 the risk of total loss is exceedingly small in this location. The 

 cost is $1.60 a year on $1,000 only. A very small sum; but 

 whether it is advisable for us farmers to invest in windstorm 

 insurance as certainly as we do in fire insurance, I do not know. 

 Location and height of buildings have something to do with this. 

 The risk is probably not one-tenth of that from fire. Should 

 many go into it, or should we quite generally, the risks might be 

 taken at a very much lower rate than now. The present rate is 

 too high. There is no moral risk, you know. A man cannot 

 blow his own house down. If a neighbor should neglect to insure 

 against wind, at present rates, and a hurricane should take his 

 buildings away, I should feel like turning in and helping him 

 rebuild, if he needed help. But if he should not insure against 

 fire, saying he would run his own risk, as some have said to me, 

 and his house should burn, I should not feel it my duty to help 

 him rebuild. A man who takes risks of this kind on his own 

 shoulders should suffer the consequences if they come, but I 

 should feel very sorry for him ; and when I come to remember his 

 family, and how we all make mistakes, I think I should have to 

 help him a little, too, although I pay for my security, and he 

 chose to take his own risk. There are so many ways that money 

 must go, and it often comes in so slowly. I know all about this. 

 But, truly, the harder up one is, the more real need of insurance. 



I hardly knew whether to renew my windstorm insurance 

 after it had run its first five years or not. But I finally did ; $5.60 

 a year for $3,500 insurance is not much. I can rest that much 

 easier when it is black in the West. But really it is too much. 



