2 BULLETIN 786, U. S. DEPAffTMEIsTT OE AGRICULTURE. 



limit the insurance written by them to country risks. In several of 

 the Eastern States and some of the Southern States, however, no such 

 distinct class of fanners' mutuals has been provided for by statute. 

 In these latter States, therefore, it is frequently difficult to determine 

 which of the mutual fire insurance companies should be considered 

 farmers' mutuals and which should not. No company has been in- 

 cluded in the above or in succeeding figures whose reply indicated 

 that the risks carried were other than farm property to an extent 

 greater than 35 per cent. 



Of the organizations complying with the above-mentioned require- 

 ments a total of 1,161 companies filled out the questionnaire.^ The 

 returns upon which the bulletin is based are thus approximately 

 three-fifths complete and are belie'ved to be sufficiently numerous and 

 also sufficiently representative to enable one to draw fairly accurate 

 conclusions concerning the prevailing plans and practices of the 

 entire group of companies here considered. On many points, how- 

 ever, it will be noticed that the variations in plans and methods are 

 quite as noticeable as any tendency toward uniformity. 



LOCATION OF COMPANIES, DATE AND METHOD OF 

 INCORPORATION, 



- Farmers' mutual fire insurance companies are found in greater or 

 smaller numbers in all the States except Florida, Louisiana, New 

 Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. More than four-fifths of these com- 

 panies, however, are located in the Middle Atlantic and the North 

 Central States. Their number and approximate locations are indi- 

 cated on the outline map shown on page 3, 



For most of the States the date of organization of the insurance 

 companies is given in the annual report of the insurance department. 

 It is therefore possible to give a more complete statement concerning 

 this phase of the question than information secured by means of the 

 questionnaire alone would permit. Using both the questionnaire and 

 the insurance reports, it has been possible to determine the date of 

 organization of 1,879 of the farmers' mutual fire insurance com- 

 panies. The number of existing companies which were organized 

 during each decade is indicated in the following table : 



Companies. Companies. 



1820-1829 2 1870-1879 484 



1830-1839 8 1880-1889 333 



1840-1849 38 1890-1899^ 450 



1850-1859 61 1900-1909 254 



1860-1869 98 1910-1917 151 



1 The information thus secured has already been used as the basis for various con- 

 clusions in Yearbook Separate 697, and in Department Bulletin 530 (see appendix), but 

 the data have not before been put in summary form suitable for general distribution. 



