488 Average Mortality among Horses. [nov., 



quality of the hay warrants their inclusion in any artificial 

 dressing for this crop. The mixture which is recommended 

 as most likely to give general satisfaction is -J cwt. of nitrate 

 of soda, f cwt. sulphate of ammonia (both 95 per cent, purity), 

 2-J- cwts. superphosphate (30 per cent, soluble), and f cwt. 

 sulphate of potash (55 per cent, purity). 



An account of a system of co-operative horse insurance 

 was given in this Journal in August last (p. 275), but no reference 

 was made to the average mortality 



Average Mortality among the horses insured, though it 

 among Horses. seems to have been very low, only 

 forty-two payments having been made 

 in nine years. The number of horses insured in 1906 was 183. 



In France the practice of mutual insurance both for horses 

 and cattle is more common than in this country, and a number 

 of estimates, based on more or less extensive records, are 

 available of the average mortality among horses. Two esti- 

 mates range from 1-50 to 2-50 per cent., and a calculation of the 

 losses experienced in the French Remount Department in 

 1905 also comes to 2-50 per cent. A group of societies in 

 Haute-Marne, on the other hand, lost only 1-75 per cent, of 

 the horses insured, while the official Belgian statistics, 1900- 

 1904, show in most cases an average of about 2-30 per cent. 

 These figures are taken from an article in the Journal d' 'Agri- 

 culture Pratique (26th September, 1907), and the writer suggests 

 that 2-50 per cent, represents an average mortality among horses 

 one year old and upwards, on which an insurance society may 

 safely reckon. The mortality of animals under one year old 

 is much higher and may reach 10 per cent, and more. 



Some similar calculations, based on returns from a number 

 of farms in Germany, appear in the Mitt, der Deutschen Land. 

 Gesell. (9th March, 1907), from which it appears that during 

 three years, 1903-05, the average mortality among 11,640 

 horses was at the rate of 3-4 per cent., and among 2,925 foals 

 at the rate of 6-3 per cent. The bulk of the animals were 

 farm horses. In Denmark returns from 338 societies covering 

 109,381 horses give a mortality of 3-6 per cent. (Report of Inter- 

 national Veterinary Congress, Budapest, 1905, Vol. i, p. 84). 



