GERMANY. 403 



other. These insurance societies are very numerous throughout Ger- 

 many, and redound principally to the benefit of small fanners, and, on 

 tin- whole, are immagod very economically. The average premium on 

 the insurance policy is 3 per cent., and the amount of compensation for 

 animals that have to be butchered on account of accidental injuries, 

 or that have died, averages 75 per cent. The animal goes into the 

 possession of the insurance company. Is the injured animal still fit for 

 the slaughter-house, it will then be sold to a butcher at a low price. 

 When the animal has died, only the hide can be utilized, and the car- 

 cass is utilized for fertilizing purposes. The insurance system has 

 developed to a high degree in the Government district of Dusseldorf. 

 The different cattle-insurance societies within this district numbered 

 6,623 members, the insured animals of the bovine race 14,519, and the 

 amount for which animals were insured was 2,889,862 marks, and 

 the premium paid in reached the sum of 88,767 marks in the year 1882. 



IMPORTATION OF AMERICAN BEEF CATTLE INTO GERMANY. 



In view of the fact that the consumption of beef meat is proportion- 

 ately increasing in the ratio to the annual increase of the population in 

 Germany, and in the face of the comparatively high price of beef cattle, 

 it may be worth while for American stock breeders and exporters to se- 

 riously consider the question whether the importation of American beef 

 cattle into Germany would not eventually turn out to be profitable. 

 The stock cattle, independent of milch cows and oxen, is continually in- 

 creasing in the United States. It has increased from 1870 to 1880 about 

 66 per cent., and the aggregrate number of stock cattle in the United 

 States, will, at this writing, probably not fall below 27,500,000, while 

 its increase in Germany is very slow and out of proportion to the in- 

 crease of population. German stock-raisers are even now somewhat 

 alarmed at the prospect that American cattle-breeders may import large 

 quantities of beef cattle into Germany in the near future, as a start has 

 lately been made by importing lean cattle to Schleswig-Holstein, where 

 they were fattened for the market, and the venture has proved to be sat- 

 isfactory. The import duty for steers and cows is $1.42 J per head; for 

 oxen, $4.76 per head, and for young cattle up to two and a half years 

 old 95J cents per head. In consideration of all these facts the time may 

 not be very distant when the United States will add a new article to its 

 German export list and that, as soon as the requisite dispositions for the 

 safety of the animals will have been completed on board the steamships, 

 American beef cattle may.be landed at German sea-ports, and the Ger- 

 man laboring classes, on whose tables good and substantial beef meat 

 is quite a rarity, may be supplied with cheap and wholesome American 

 beef. 



WOLFGANG SCHOENLE, 



Consul. 



UAITED STATES CONSULATE, 

 Barmen, November 23, 1883. 



