HAIL INSURANCE ON FARM CROPS. 3 



stock fire insurance company had begun to write hail insurance. 

 The total hail premiums reported for these two companies in 1905 

 were approximately equal to the amount collected b}^ the mutual 

 companies, or about three-fourths of a million dollars. 



By 1910 the total number of mutual hail insurance companies had 

 decreased to 28, as against 37 in 1905. The total premiums for the 

 year, however, showed a considerable increase, being more than 

 $1,000,000. Of the hail mutuals reported by State insurance depart- 

 ments in 1910, one was located in Connecticut, five in Wisconsin, 

 four in Minnesota, nine in Iowa, one in North Dakota, two in Ne- 

 braska, three in Kansas, two in Oklahoma, and one in Montana. 

 Two of the Minnesota hail mutuals wrote insurance in Kansas and 

 Montana, as well as in their home States, and one of these companies 

 wrote also in North Dakota. In later years these same Minnesota 

 mutuals have been doing business in several States, and a few of the 

 Iowa companies have also been admitted to neighboring States. 



At least five joint-stock companies were writing hail insurance on 

 growing crops by 1910. The total hail premiums received by this 

 class of companies for the year, so far as these figures have been 

 obtained, were approximately the same as those reported for the 

 year 1905, or about $750,000, though they exceeded this amount in 

 some of the intervening years. During this five-year period, there- 

 fore, the mutual hail insurance companies had made a material 

 growth, while the hail business of joint-stock fire insurance com- 

 panies had been approximately stationary. 



In the five-year period following 1910 the hail insurance business 

 in the United States advanced b}^ rapid strides. The number of 

 mutual companies increased to 39. Their total premiums in 1915 

 exceeded $3,336,000, and were thus more than three times as great 

 as in 1910. Although the mutual hail insurance companies thus 

 made a material advance in the five years from 1910 to 1915, the hail 

 business of the joint-stock fire insurance companies showed a far 

 greater advance. The total number of such companies in the field 

 increased from 5 to 35, while their total hail premiums in 1915 

 amounted to approximately $6,400,000, as against three-fourths of a 

 million for 1910. 



The year 1915, as will be brought out later in this bulletin, was 

 an extremely severe one from the point of view of hail losses. A 

 number of the mutual companies, as on various previous occasions, 

 were caught without adequate reserves or other resources and had 

 to prorate their losses. As a result, mutual hail insurance suffered a 

 severe setback, this being particularly true in the State of Kansas. 

 During the season of 1916 only 35 mutual companies were in the field, 

 and the premiums collected by the mutuals in this year amounted to 

 only about two-thirds the total premiums collected by this group of 



