578 



Insurance of Live Stock. 



[NOV. 



entrance fee and subscription, and forthwith becomes entitled to 

 the benefits of the club. Promptness in payment of subscriptions 

 is insisted upon under penalty of forfeiting all advantages. 



The majority of the members have from one to two cows, 

 while some have three or four and even six cows insured. 



About 3 per cent, on the average of the insured cows die 

 during the year, milk fever being the principal cause of death. 



This society is stated to have made one mistake which was 

 soon remedied. Any sort of cow was at first admitted, with 

 the result that the society was imposed upon by a few persons 

 who bought and entered old cows of little value and claimed 

 average value at death. This practice was effectually stopped 

 by the adoption of a new rule to the effect that no cow would 

 be accepted for insurance which had had more than two calves. 

 Again, if the marker has cause to suspect that any cow required 

 to be marked by him is unsound or diseased, he is not allowed 

 to mark such cow without the concurrence of the valuing com- 

 mittee ; and as the marker is a practical man and himself a 

 cowkeeper, the society is sufficiently protected. If a member 

 lose a cow or cows from any contagious disease, he is not 

 allowed to enter another until the cow shed and adjoining 

 buildings have been thoroughly disinfected. 



In some societies the full value of the cow is paid so 

 long as it does not exceed Xio, and the subscription is is. a 

 quarter with is. entrance fee. The subscription for calves is 

 gd. a quarter and 6d. entrance fee, the compensation payable 

 varying from £2 to -£5. The number of animals belonging to 

 any one member is sometimes limited by rule so as not to exceed 

 seven, of which two must be calves. 



The value of these societies to small cowkeepers is shown 

 by the fact that in one society one unlucky occupier of less than 

 eight acres of land has received payment within a comparatively 

 short time for four cows ; another small farmer, for three cows ; 

 while a third had on one occasion two cows killed by lightning. 

 The secretary of one of the largest of these societies states that 

 the members are in all cases small holders, and he observes 

 that " among such holders the benefits of a society such as 

 this are of the greatest — in fact, without some system of 

 insurance small holders cannot exist, the loss of a cow being 

 most serious to the man whose capital is but small." 



