2 BULLETIN 786, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
limit the insurance written by them to country risks. In several of 
the Eastern States and some of the Southern States, however, no such 
distinct class of farmers' mutuals has been provided for by statute. 
In these latter States, therefore, it is frequently difficult to determine 
which of the mutual fire insurance companies should be considered 
farmers' mutuals and which should not. No company has been in- 
cluded in the above or in succeeding figures whose reply indicated 
that the risks carried were other than farm property to an extent 
greater than 35 per cent. 
Of the organizations complying with the above-mentioned require- 
ments a total of 1,161 companies filled out the questionnaire. 1 The 
returns upon which the bulletin is based are thus approximately 
three-fifths complete and are believed to be sufficiently numerous and 
also sufficiently representative to enable one to draw fairly accurate 
conclusions concerning the prevailing plans and practices of the 
entire group of companies here considered. On many points, how- 
ever, it will be noticed that the variations in plans and methods are 
quite as noticeable as any tendency toward uniformity. 
LOCATION OF COMPANIES, DATE AND METHOD OF 
INCORPORATION. 
Farmers' mutual fire insurance companies are found in greater or 
smaller numbers in all the States except Florida, Louisiana, New 
Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. More than four-fifths of these com- 
panies, however, are located in the Middle Atlantic and the North 
Central States. Their number and approximate locations are indi- 
cated on the outline map shown on page 3. 
For most of the States the date of organization of the insurance 
companies is given in the annual report of the insurance department. 
It is therefore possible to give a more complete statement concerning 
this phase of the question than information secured by means of the 
questionnaire alone would permit. Using both the questionnaire and 
the insurance reports, it has been possible to determine the date of 
organization of 1,879 of the farmers' mutual fire insurance com- 
panies. The number of existing companies which were organized 
during each decade is indicated in the following table : 
Companies. 
1870-1879 484 
1880-1889 333 
1890-1899 450 
1900-1909 254 
1910-1917 151 
1 The information thus secured has already been used as the basis for various con- 
elusions in Yearbook Separate 697, and in Department Bulletin 530 (see appendix), but 
the data have not before been put in summary form suitable for general distribution. 
1820-1829 
Companies. 
9 
1830-1839 
8 
1840-1849 
1850-1859 
38 
61 
1860-1869 
98 
