244 



Agricultural Insurance in Bavaria. 



is levied on maize, equivalent to about 50 per cent, of its 

 present value, imported food would prove altogether too 

 expensive. 



As matters now stand the Swedish trade in bacon is a 

 precarious one, depending principally on the oa,t crop, which 

 has been a failure during at least three years of the past 

 decade. 



\ Foreign Office Report^ Annual Series y No, 2,161, Price z^d.J 



Agricultural Insurance in Bavaria. 



In a report published by the Foreign Office on the trade 

 of Bavaria, Mr. Frederic Harford, Her Majesty's Charge 

 d' Affaires at Munich, observes that it is a striking proof of 

 the efficacy of State initiative in Germany that the State cattle 

 insurance department, which only commenced operations on 

 October ist, 1896, had on August ist, 1897, no less than 805 

 local associations affiliated to it, with 36,376 members insuring 

 169,249 cattle and 12,642 goats. Up till 1895 there were 

 eight private societies for horse and cattle insurance, and in 

 that year only 11,250 horses and 3,559 ca^ttle were insured. 



There are now 900 local associations, with an insura^nce 

 capital of ;£2, 050,000, and in some districts 1 5 per cent, of the 

 cattle are insured. The insurers are mostly small farmers 

 and peasants, and so far the larger farming owners have only 

 adopted insurance to a small extent. 



The average payment of each insurer under the State 

 department amounts to iti per cent., compared with 3 to 5 

 per cent, charged by private companies. In the first year of 

 its existence the department paid ^32,809 compensation for 

 4,614 claims, of which 25 per cent, were for losses by disease, 

 the chief being tuberculosis, of which there were 959 

 cases. The averag-e insurance value of the cattle was £10 

 per head. 



Bavaria is visited in summer by frequent thunderstorms, 

 often accompanied by violent hailstorms. In 1895 damage 

 to the amount of ^234,522, and in 1896 to the amount of 



