526 



Mutual Insurance Societies in France, [oct., 



the whole live stock on a farm, within certain Specified age 

 limits, should be included in the insurance. 



(3) That on the commencement of an insurance there be paid 

 (besides the premium paid in advance) a registration fee, to be 

 applied to the formation of a reserve fund for each division. 



(4) That compensation be not paid in full for losses, but that 

 the insurer take a small part of the risk himself. This is 

 arranged by deducting 20 per cent, from the gross amount of 

 the compensation, and is intended to ensure the careful treat- 

 ment of insured animals and to keep premiums down. 



The Department of Agriculture consider it inadvisable to 

 start a mutual insurance society for less than about 50 to 

 100 horses and 200 to 300 cattle. They advise the limiting of 

 the insurance to direct loss caused by the death or necessary 

 slaughter of horses or cattle on account of illness or accident. 



The society should be managed by a small committee chosen 

 from among the members, and they should have the power to 

 ask a higher premium from farmers who use their horses for 

 dangerous work or whose cattle graze on very hilly ground, &c. 



It is recommended that the maximum sums for which horses 

 and cattle can be insured should be £55 and £14 respectively. 



With reference to the accounts of the system of mutual 

 agricultural insurance in France which were given in this 

 Journal (December, 1904, Vol. xi, p. 547, 

 Mutual a nd May, 1906, Vol. xiii, p. 119), a 



Insurance Societies report of the French Minister of Agri- 

 in France. culture states that on the 1st June, 

 1908, there were 8,780 mutual insurance 

 societies, with about 498,000 members, the capital insured 

 amounting to over £29,000,000. 



Of these societies 7,241 are for the insurance of cattle, 1,442 

 for insurance against fire (agricultural risks), 24 against hail, 

 4 against accidents, and 69 are re-insurance societies. The 

 total grants received from the French Government by the 

 societies since 1898 have amounted to £239,000. 



Many of the local societies are grouped into federations, and 

 of these in the case of cattle insurance there are 53 in 39 depart- 

 ments, representing 2,731 affiliated societies, and nearly 



