1908.] Insurance of Live Stock. 



525 



Besides the above companies some few local insurance 

 associations exist for the insurance of stallions and bulls for 

 breeding purposes. The first receive no subvention from the 

 State, but the associations for the insurance of bulls receive 

 small grants. About one-half the total number of horses, 

 one-sixth of the cattle and one-thirtieth of the pigs are insured 

 in Denmark. 



Norway. — A memorandum forwarded by Sir Arthur Herbert, 

 K.C.V.O., H,M. Minister at Christiana, states that the insurance 

 of live stock in Norway is purely voluntary ; but, judging from 

 the large number of private societies that have been formed for 

 the purpose of mutual insurance, it would appear that the 

 principle finds acceptance among the farmers. 



One or two of these societies carry on business all over the 

 country, but the others, between 100 and 200 in number, are 

 local. Some of these insure only horses, others only cattle, 

 and others again both horses and cattle. Some societies will 

 only insure the whole farm stock, others single animals ; some 

 insure against loss by illness or death, others only against 

 death or necessary slaughter ; some compensate for the whole 

 of the loss that has been sustained, others for only part of it. 



The authorities appear to have originally entertained some 

 doubt as to the advisability of promoting the institution of 

 small local societies as they believed that the risks would not 

 be so great and that the administration would be simplified 

 if the societies covered larger districts. Experience has, how- 

 ever, proved that under the conditions prevailing in Norway, 

 where small and widely scattered farms are the rule, local 

 societies based on mutual insurance among the members are 

 those which can do most towards the general insurance of live 

 stock. 



In order to assist societies that might be formed for this 

 purpose, the Department of Agriculture has prepared a set of 

 model rules. The principal points suggested are : — 



(1) That each society should consist of two separate divisions, 

 one for horses and the other for cattle, and that each division 

 should have its own set of accounts and its own reserve fund, 

 but both should be under the same management. The object 

 of this is the correct and equitable adjustment of premiums. 



(2) That single animals should not be insured, but that 



