FIRE INSURANCE IN EUROPE 



125 



For simplicity, the lower rates only are here considered for both 

 companies. 



Cost of insurance for a regulated forest of pine, site IV, 60 

 acres, rotation 60 years. 



Area. 

 Acres. 



10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 



Rhein Province 

 Institute. 

 Premium. 



Rate per 



$T000. 



2.50 



I. so 



1.50 



I. so 



•50 



• so 



Cost for 

 10 



Acres $. 



Total 

 Per acre 



.70 



.78 



1-37 



2.00 



.82 



.98 



6.67 



.11 



Gladbach 



Insurance Co. 



Premium. 



Rate per 

 $1000. 



340 

 2.80 

 2.20 

 1.50 



I.03 



Cost for 



10 

 Acres $. 



Per $1000 worth of woods i.oo 



1.76 

 2.56 



2-93 

 2.48 



1.97 



Total 12.84 



.21 



1.94 



Assuming the yearly gross income from this sixty acres to be 

 $225, Yr + T„ and the total expense c + e, $75, the insurance 

 would take 4.4% in one, or 8.5% in the other, of the net income of 

 this forest. From each $1,000 of gross income this insurance takes 

 $30 in one, $57 in the other company. Comparing this to the actual 

 yearly losses in Prussia, $1.90, and Bavaria $0.66, as seen in the 

 foregoing table, it is easy to see why the state forests are not insured. 



So far the forest fire insurance has not been a success, the com- 

 panies have not made any money in this line of insurance and the 

 proportion of forest insured is still insignificant. Compulsory state 

 insurance would, no doubt readily solve this problem and reduce the 

 rate to nearly the actual average loss and so reduce it to less than 

 twenty per cent of the present rates. 



In this connection the comparison of cost of insurance and cost 

 of good fire protection is interesting. For a regulated forest of pine 

 with a rotation of only sixty years the lowest premium is eleven 

 cents per acre for a hundred year rotation of the same kind of 

 woods, pine, it amounts to twenty-seven cents. But with any large 

 property and any kind of system of protection ten cents an acre goes 

 a long way toward preventing fire entirely and certainly can well 

 reduce the damage to the insignificant minimum now secured in 



