572 Insurance of Live Stock. [now, 



This figure, ys. to ios. per ton for farmyard manure, is 

 considerably higher than the usual estimate attached to dung 

 for purposes of valuation or of drawing up the balance sheet 

 of a manurial experiment ; it does however, represent what 

 it will cost the potato or hop grower who sets out to keep 

 cattle solely for the purpose of making dung. It is for him 

 to decide whether he can secure sufficient profit from the cattle 

 themselves to make it worth while to produce farmyard 

 manure at such a price. 



INSURANCE OF LIVE STOCK IN GREAT BRITAIN.* 

 One of the oldest forms of co-operation in this country is 

 the mutual insurance of live stock in the form of what are 

 known as cow and pig clubs. No complete returns are avail- 

 able as to their number, but in 1905 the Board ascertained the 

 existence of 1,021 pig clubs in England. Cow clubs are riot 

 so numerous as pig clubs, and they are believed to have 

 decreased of late. Some of them, however, have been in 

 existence for a great number of years. One in Shropshire 

 was established in 1838, and had 518 members in 1907 and a 

 reserve fund of £997, while another cow club in the same county 

 dates from 1842, and with 296 members has accumulated a 

 reserve fund of £1,440. The oldest registered society is one 

 established near Ormskirk in Lancashire, which dates from 

 1807. 



The extension in the provision of allotments and small 

 holdings in England makes the establishment of societies of 

 this type of great importance, and it is to be hoped that this 

 simple and effective form of co-operation, which is well known 

 and understood in the rural districts of England, will be 

 largely adopted. 



Method of establishing a society. — Live stock insurance 

 societies can be established by mutual agreement, and are not 

 required by law to be registered or formally incorporated in 

 any way, but the Friendly Societies Act, 1896, provides for 

 the optional registration of societies, called in the Act, Cattle 

 Insurance Societies, for the purpose of insurance to any amount 



* Information as to the insurance of live stock in Holland, Belgium, France, 

 Switzerland, Germany and Sweden, was given in this Journal in April, 1908, p. 32,. 

 and as to Denmark and Norway in October, 1908, p. 523. 



