HAIL INSURANCE ON FARM CROPS. 7 



each of the next six years was less than one-half as great as that of 

 1912. During each of these years it was found necessary to prorate 

 the losses, the percentages paid being as follows: 1913, 88 per cent; 

 1914, 65 per cent ; 1915, 75 per cent ; 1916, 38 per cent ; 1917. 62 per 

 cent ; and 1918, 53 per cent. 



The rather discouraging experience on the part of North Dakota 

 with its State hail insurance department under the law as first en- 

 acted may be ascribed chiefly to two causes. In the first place, the 

 premium charges provided for in the law were inadequate, such 

 charges for the years 1911 and 1912 having been 20 cents per acre on 

 $8 of insurance, making a rate of only 2^ per cent, or exactly one- 

 fourth of the rate now charged by joint-stock companies in the State. 

 In the spring of 1913 the law was amended so as to make the rate of 

 premium 30 cents per acre on $8 of insurance, or 3f per cent, at which 

 figure the rate remained until the complete revision of the law in the 

 spring of 1919. The other outstanding cause of failure of the origi- 

 nal North Dakota plan was that applications for insurance had to be 

 made to the assessor in the early spring and the premiums for such 

 insurance advanced at that time, before any crops were actually in 

 existence. 



In spite of this apparent failure of State hail insurance in North 

 Dakota, the States of Montana and Nebraska enacted laws providing 

 for State hail insurance departments in the spring of 1917. The Mon- 

 tana department began operations shortly after the law was passed, 

 but no insurance was written by the Nebraska department until the 

 season of 1918. The premiums collected by the Montana department 

 during its first year of operation amounted to $107,000, and the losses 

 incurred were moderate, being only $62,000. Although the law per- 

 mitted a maximum assessment of 60 cents per acre, the department 

 assessed and collected hail premiums of only 40 cents per acre on 

 $12 of insurance, being at a rate of 3^ per cent. With the funds so 

 collected the department was able to pay its losses, together with ex- 

 penses of operation, the latter amounting to $4,700, and to complete 

 the year with a surplus of $40,000. This favorable beginning of State 

 hail insurance in Montana in 1917 was, however, followed by a very 

 trying experience in 1918. The losses this year were extremely heavy, 

 caused largely by a severe and unusually extensive hail storm just at 

 the time when the wheat was ripe and ready for harvest. The losses 

 as adjusted approximated $870,000. The maximum levy of 60 cents 

 per acre brought only a little over $400,000, and this amount, together 

 with the small surplus from the preceding year, was only enough to 

 pay 46 per cent of the losses. 



The Nebraska State hail insurance department during 1918, its 

 first year of operation, collected $154,260 in premiums. The law in 

 this case provided fixed rates which varied from 25 cents per acre for 



